New analysis of a famous, 2,500-year-old mummy known as the “Screaming Woman” may revise what makes for a “good” versus “bad” mummification—and potentially solve a mystery that has perplexed Egyptologists for nearly ninety years.
During the 21st and 22nd Egyptian dynasties, priests oversaw the relocation of a trove of dynastic remains to the Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache in Thebes (near modern-day Luxor). While initial excavations began in 1881, the Metropolitan Museum of New York conducted a follow-up investigation into adjacent crypts in 1935. It was then that archeologists first uncovered the tomb of Senmut, the royal architect and rumored lover of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE). But beneath Senmut’s resting place lay another chamber, this one containing his mother, Hat-Nufer, and multiple unidentified relatives.
Within one of those wooden coffins resided a striking figure—the mummy of an older (for the time), richly adorned woman with a mouth frozen open as if screaming. Although not the first mummy found with such an expression, the anonymous woman’s anatomy and the preservation techniques used on her raised a question for experts. Usually, an open mouth is evidence of a poorly performed mummification, but this didn’t make sense given the Screaming Woman’s royal interment. Now, 89 years later, Egyptologists may finally have at least some answers about the Screaming Woman.
Radiology professor Sahar Saleem and colleagues at Cairo University’s Kasr Al Ainy Hospital have published a new study in the journal Frontiers in Medicine that provides never-before-seen, detailed looks at the mummy along with reliable theories about her health near the end of her life. Thanks to CT imaging, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and other equipment, Saheer’s team theorize the open mouth of Senmut’s unidentified relative may not be due to a shoddy burial, but rather the result of a cadaveric spasm in her final moments.
Scans indicate the woman, approximately 48-years-old, lacked multiple teeth at her time of death—these, however, were lost earlier in her life due to evidence of bone resorption, which occurs when an empty tooth socket reheals. According to Saleem, these may have even been extracted by a professional, as dentistry originated in ancient Egypt. Evidence of bone spurs on her vertebrae also indicates mild spine arthritis.
When it comes to the Screaming Woman’s bodily mummification, a surprising detail sticks out from everything else—the lack of an embalming incision. Egyptologists have long believed classic New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE) mummifications entailed the removal of a cadaver’s organs except their heart, but the Screaming Woman appeared to still possess them when she was buried. Because of this, Saleen theorizes leaving organs inside a body may actually have been sometimes customary at the time.
As for how she was prepared for mummification, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) scans of the mummy’s skin revealed the presence of juniper and frankincense, luxuries that Egyptians would need to import from Southern Arabia, East Africa, or the Eastern Mediterranean. The woman’s natural hair was dyed with henna and juniper, but she also wore a long wig for the afterlife made from date palm fingers treated with albite crystals, magnetite, and quartz. These were often used to stiffen the wig’s locks and make them appear black to indicate a more youthful appearance.
“These findings support the ancient trade of embalming materials in ancient Egypt,” Saleem said in an accompanying statement, noting a previous expedition led by Queen Hatshepsut brought back frankincense, while Tutankhamun’s tomb also contained frankincense and juniper.
These embalming methods, combined with her well-preserved appearance, “contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification,” said Saleem.
While a definitive answer about the Screaming Woman’s cause of death remains a mystery, Saleem’s work indicates practices like organ removal weren’t always a defining feature of professional mummifications. If nothing else, the spooky visage is likely not due to a bad mummification job. Regardless, Saleem calls the Screaming Woman a “true ‘time capsule’ of the way that she died and was mummified.”
