{"id":6134,"date":"2024-08-02T15:07:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T15:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/02\/screaming-woman-egyptian-mummys-pained-expression-may-have-been-caused-by-rare-event\/"},"modified":"2024-08-02T15:07:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T15:07:14","slug":"screaming-woman-egyptian-mummys-pained-expression-may-have-been-caused-by-rare-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/02\/screaming-woman-egyptian-mummys-pained-expression-may-have-been-caused-by-rare-event\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Screaming Woman\u2019: Egyptian mummy\u2019s pained expression may have been caused by rare event"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mystery of why an ancient Egyptian mummy nicknamed the Screaming Woman had a pained expression on her face may have been solved.<\/p>\n

New analysis by scientists suggests she died “screaming from agony” around 3,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The experts say she may then have experienced a rare event known as a cadaveric spasm at the moment of death, causing her muscles to stiffen and immortalise her suffering.<\/p>\n

The condition causes the muscles to freeze in the exact position the person was in when they died.<\/p>\n

Although her cause of death remains a mystery, cadaveric spasms are usually associated with violent deaths under extreme physical conditions and intense emotions.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Screaming Woman’s alarming expression has baffled experts for 90 years.<\/p>\n

But new analysis, using CT scans to perform a “virtual dissection”, has uncovered a number of new details, and challenges a previously held belief that her pained expression was the result of poor embalming.<\/p>\n

Cairo University radiology professor Sahar Saleem, who led the study, said: “The mummy’s screaming facial expression in this study could be read as a cadaveric spasm, implying that the woman died screaming from agony or pain.”<\/p>\n

Professor Saleem described her as a “true time capsule” preserving the final moments of her life.<\/p>\n

Where was she discovered?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Screaming Woman was found during a 1935 archaeological expedition at Deir el-Bahari, near the Egyptian city of Luxor, underneath the tomb of a well-known architect known as Senmut.<\/p>\n

She was discovered inside a wooden coffin with her legs extended and arms folded above her groin.<\/p>\n

She was wearing a black wig made from date palm fibres treated with quartz, magnetite and albite crystals, and had two gold and silver scarab rings on the third finger of her left hand.<\/p>\n

The analysis showed her natural hair was dyed with henna and juniper.<\/p>\n

Scans showed she had lost or broken a number of her teeth and suffered from mild arthritis of the spine.<\/p>\n

The examination suggested she would have been around 5ft tall and died at the age of 48.<\/p>\n

How was she embalmed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike classic mummification methods – where organs, aside from the heart, are usually removed from the body – her organs were still present, previously suggesting poor mummification.<\/p>\n

However, an examination of her skin found she had been embalmed with juniper and frankincense – expensive items that had to be imported into Egypt from neighbouring countries, researchers said.<\/p>\n

“Here we show that she was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material,” Professor Saleem said.<\/p>\n

“This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification.”<\/p>\n

The analysis was published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mystery of why an ancient Egyptian mummy nicknamed the Screaming Woman had a pained…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}