**Ancient mummy had living burial**.

Screaming Woman: 5,000-year-old mummy's scream of pain or poor embalming?

** Archaeologists ** recently re-examined the mummy of an unnamed woman, dubbed the "Screaming Woman," who was discovered in 1935 in the tomb of Senmut, an 18th Dynasty Egyptian official.

• Original theory: Poor embalming led to her jaw being locked in a twisted, screaming position.
• New research: CT scans and other advanced techniques reveal that she was embalmed with expensive, imported materials, contradicting the idea of poor mummification.
• Cause of death: Unknown, but researchers hypothesize that her expression could be the result of cadaveric spasm, indicating a death involving extreme pain or agony.

The details are published in the Frontiers in Medicine journal.

"Here we show that 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," said Radiologist Sahar Saleem, one of the lead researchers.

The woman was approximately 48 years old and 5 feet tall. She had spinal arthritis and evidence of early dental work. The expression on her face and the position of her jaw may be due to cadaveric spasm, a controversial phenomenon that occurs in cases of sudden death after great and prolonged muscular tension.