Disturbing theory emerges about powerful woman who died screaming: 'Final act'

She was rich. She was powerful. She died in terror.

This woman was embalmed in the most expensive process possible shortly after death. And the state of her 3,500-year-old mummy attests to the quality of the work.

But the standard process was not followed. And she was buried with little regard to her afterlife.

Such is the mystery of Mummy CIT8. But you can call her the “Screaming Woman”.

Her body was discovered during excavations in 1935-36 of a funerary complex in the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes.

This was the tomb of Senmut, the chief architect, royal overseer - and reputed lover - of Pharaoh Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BC).

Hatshepsut was only the second woman to become Pharaoh. Initially, she acted as regent for her two-year-old stepson. But she soon took the titles and powers for herself and remained co-ruler once he came of age.

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There are hints of scandal surrounding Hatshepsut’s apparently close relationship with Senmut. And the architect vanishes from the public record 16 years into her 20-year reign.

Hatshepsut almost suffered a similar fate. After her death, Thutmose III attempted to erase her face and name from history.

Mummy CIT8 is somehow linked to Senmut’s fate.

The 48-year-old, 1.54 metre tall woman was found in a chamber beneath the final resting place assigned to him by Egypt’s high priests, along with his mother (Hat-Nufer) and several other unidentified mummies - probably belonging to relatives.

And her face - locked in an eternal scream - isn’t the only odd thing about her.

Mummy unprepared for the afterlife

“Preservation of the body served a sacred purpose in ancient Egypt, ensuring that the spirit would live forever and enabling it to recognise the body after death,” a newly published study in the journal Frontiers in Medicine reads.

That’s what prompted Cairo University radiologist Dr Sahar Saleem and anthropologist Samia El-Merghan to forensically analyse CIT8 recently to determine as much about her life and death as possible.

Her well-preserved (but unwrapped) mummy was in a wooden coffin. Her elaborate wig is an exotic sign of her high status.

But all of her internal organs remained in her largely unadorned body. And her mouth was locked open.

There is no apparent cause of death.

To an Egyptologist, this is a contradictory set of circumstances.

Mummies of the rich and powerful were bedecked with sacred amulets and jewellery. These were supposed to invoke the power of the gods to protect them from misfortune and evil.

The only jewellery recovered from Mummy CIT8 were two simple jasper scarab rings.

She suffered from mild arthritis of the spine, with scans revealing bone spurs on some vertebrae that make up the backbone. She had lost several teeth. But the bone cavities were well healed.

“Teeth lost during life may have been extracted. Dentistry had originated in ancient Egypt, with Hesy Re the first recorded physician and dentist in the world,” Saleem adds.

Disturbing facial expression puzzles experts

So why was she screaming?

In the New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BC), mummification involved the removal of all significant internal organs except the heart. Even the brain was extracted.

Egyptologists have come to regard those retaining any of these organs as something of a rushed job or a cut-price service.

This wasn’t the case for Mummy CIT8.

“She was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material. This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification,” Dr Saleem said.

A screaming expression can happen naturally. Mouth muscles can relax during sleep or decomposition. And Egyptian embalmers would often place wrapping beneath the jaw and around the skull to hold it closed.

The researchers noted that two other Egyptian royal mummies had been found with their mouths open.

One, Pentawere, was very poorly embalmed. He had been executed after a plot to kill his father, Ramesses III (1185 -1153 BC).

The second, an inscription calling her “The Royal daughter, royal sister Meritamun”, appears to have been preserved quickly. Rigour mortis sets in between 6 and 12 hours after death. It can last up to 36 hours. This may explain why the embalmers did not reposition her jaw or crossed legs.

But mummy CIT8 was buried in a traditional pose, with arms folded across her otherwise straight body.

“The funerary techniques the embalmers employed on the corpse of mummy CIT8 … [indicate] good mummification quality. This makes it less plausible that the embalmers were careless to secure the mouth closed,” the researchers write.

Theory emerges on reason for eternal scream

So what can explain the scream?

“Cadaveric spasm is another type of spasm that demonstrates the final action prior to death,” the researchers propose.

It’s a rare condition brought on by a severe physical or emotional state. Muscles contract to a point where they don’t relax, even after death.

“The phenomenon is rarely observed, mainly in forensic pathology, and not fully understood; it could be caused by motor nerve activation, but for some reason, normal relaxation fails,” the study states. “Unlike rigour mortis, cadaveric spasm affects only one group of muscles, not the entire body.

“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.”

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