A mystery that is almost 3,000 years old has recently been solved.
Most of the Egyptian mummies look serene, but one of the mummies has an expression of horror on its face that has been haunted by scientists all this time.
“The scary mummy of the Unknown Man E, also known as the Screaming Mummy, has long confused the minds of scientists,” says Egyptologist and former Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass.
Scientists believe that they have finally discovered the reason for such an expression on the mummy's face - most likely the person really screamed at the time of death.
DNA tests have confirmed the leading theory that the mummy was Prince Pentever. He was sentenced to death and probably hanged for his part in the assassination of his father Ramses III, who ruled in the 12th century BC.
The tormented face is not the only oddity of the Screaming Mummy.
“This mummy was covered in sheepskin,” Hawass told National Geographic in 2008. “For the ancient Egyptian, a sheepskin on a mummy meant that this person was not clean, that he had done something bad during his lifetime.”
The screaming mummy also did not have a special funeral mark, which, according to the custom of the time, deprived him of the afterlife. His arms and legs were tied and he wasn't even mummified in the traditional way.
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"He was not mummified, he was simply allowed to dry in natural soda and then the resin was poured into his mouth," the Egyptian newspaper reported.
However, the mummy was found in the same burial with other members of the royal family.
“For this man of forces, two forces fought. One tried to get rid of it and the other tried to keep it,”says Bob Brier, an archaeologist at Long Island University who examined the body. "For some reason, someone wanted to make sure the prince didn't have an afterlife, but someone else cared about him and wanted the opposite."
The mummy was recently displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, as part of a special temporary exhibition featuring previously unseen parts of the collection. During the week, the Screaming Mummy was visited by 20,000 people, as a result of which the museum decided to extend the exhibition time.
Ilya Kislov
