The so-called “screaming mummy,” famous for her contorted facial expression, likely died in excruciating pain, claims a team of researchers. This discovery adds credence to a theory that’s been speculated upon since the mummy was first discovered nearly a century ago.
A Metropolitan Museum of Art expedition found the mummy in 1935 in a wooden coffin beneath the tomb of Senmut in Deir Elbahari, the site of ancient Thebes. The mummified woman was wearing a black wig and gold and silver rings, but most intriguing was her expression, with her mouth agape and jaw slightly askew.
In 2020, analysis of the 3,000-year-old mummy by Zahi Hawass and Sahar Saleem found that the Ancient Egyptian woman died of a heart attack; crucially, the team concluded that the her agony was immortalized by the embalming process, giving her the nickname “the screaming mummy.” In a research context, the specimen is known as “Unknown woman A.”
Now, a paper published in Frontiers in Medicine corroborates that finding, pushing back against skepticism about whether the woman actually died in such dramatic circumstances.
“In ancient Egypt, the embalmers took care of the dead body so it would look beautiful for the afterlife,” explained Saleem, a radiologist at Cairo University and the study’s lead author, in an email to Gizmodo. “That’s why they were keen to close the mouth of the dead by tying the jaw to the head to prevent the normal postmortem jaw drop.”
“We found the mummified body was in a very good preservation condition with traces of expensive embalming materials on the surface of her body,” Saleem added. “This ruled out that the mummification process had been careless and that the embalmers had simply neglected to close her mouth.”
Rather, Saleem’s team posits, the woman may have suffered a cadaveric spasm, a rare form of muscle stiffening in a localized part of the body just before death. The muscles can contract for up to 36 hours; the recent research team suggests the individual may have been embalmed before the muscles had a chance to relax, preserving her face at death. The team notes that the condition may have prevented the embalmers from closing her mouth as they normally would.
As reported by Gizmodo in 2020, researchers believe the woman may have suffered a heart attack, causing her death. A 2013 study in The Lancet found that 34% of mummies from that time showed evidence of cardiovascular disease. For comparison, 1 in every 5 deaths in 2022 could be attributed to some form of heart disease, according to the CDC.
“The scientific investigation into the resins and other materials of mummification in this study are helpful contributions and the authors’ approaches are novel and detailed,” said Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at St. Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and lead author of the global HORUS study, a sweeping look at heart disease in ancient cultures, in an email to Gizmodo.
“Regarding the explanation for the open mouth, the authors discuss this nicely, but they don’t have any direct evidence in this particular mummy to support their opinion or to disprove other potential possibilities,” Thompson, who wasn’t involved in the new study, added. “I believe they are correct, however. Their explanation makes sense.”
That said, Thompson told Gizmodo back in 2020 that “museum curators and anthropologists sometimes spin a whole story about a mummy from a small piece of objective data—and there is no one around to contradict them.”
Saleem’s team supported her previous findings by highlighting that the embalmers took reasonable care with the deceased and completed the job at some expense. Analysis of the woman’s skin revealed it was embalmed with important frankincense and juniper, her natural hair was treated with henna and juniper, and even her wig had been treated with quartz and crystals. In other words, her mouth doesn’t seem like it was gaping because the embalmers were lazy.
Not all agree, however. “With death, muscles of the body relax, usually causing the mouth to be passively open,” said Gregory Thomas, a cardiologist at UC Irvine unaffiliated with the recent work and co-lead of the HORUS project, in an email to Gizmodo. “To best represent the deceased following death, modern day and likely ancient embalmers, physically closed the mouth if it was open when they received the deceased. Thus, the most likely cause of the screaming appearance of the CIT8 [screaming] mummy is that her mouth was not closed during the embalming process.”
“The cadaveric spasm is a process that still is not well understood as it is rare and occurs only in forensic circumstances. So more forensic studies may be needed,” Saleem added. “In addition, more studies of mummies with such screaming facial expression may shed more light on the condition.”
