In 1881 the remains of a mummified woman were found. Since her discovery, the expression on her face that seemed to scream surprised several experts for not having seen anything like it before and remained an enigma until scientists managed to discover the possible reason that led the woman to scream before she died.
Since its discovery, the mummy awoke an enigma due to the particular expression on its face that led scientists to carry out a study to understand what caused the woman to have an apparent gesture of pain when she died.
Scientists subjected the mummy to computerized tomography scans, which revealed that the woman died of a heart attack. According to the authors of the study, the pain would have caused the expression on her face and hardened because it was found after having developed rigor mortis hours after her death.
Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Cairo University radiologist Sahar Saleem also discovered that the woman was in her 60s at the time of death and suffered from degenerative disease, severe arteriosclerosis of the coronary arteries, leading to her death with cardiac arrest.
Hawass explained to Egyptian media Ahram Online that the woman was probably embalmed with her body contracted before decomposition occurred, so they were unable to close her mouth.
The mummy was found wrapped in linen with writing that reads: “The royal daughter, the royal sister of Meret Amon” in 1881 when the DB320 tomb was discovered in Luxor where the mummified bodies of the royal members of the XXI and XXII dynasties lay.