Egyptian mummy with screaming expression ‘may have died in agony’, say researchers

The researchers say the woman’s open mouth was unlikely to be down to careless embalmers who neglected to close it. Photograph: Sahar Saleem

She looks uncannily like The Scream painting by Edvard Munch, but just why an ancient Egyptian mummy has such a startling expression has long puzzled researchers. Now they say they may have the answer – suggesting the woman died crying out in agony.

The woman is thought to have been buried about 3,500 years ago and was discovered in 1935 in a wooden coffin beneath the tomb of Senmut – an important architect during the reign of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.