Prince Pentawere, a man who tried (probably successfully) to murder his own father, Pharaoh Ramesses III, and later took his own life after he was put on trial, is now on public display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Pentawere's mummy, popularly known as the "screaming mummy," was not properly mummified. No embalming fluid was used, and his body was allowed to naturally mummify, with his mouth agape and his facial muscles strained in order to make it appear as if the mummy were screaming. Whether he died screaming or whether he was made to look like that after death is unclear. Those burying him then wrapped his body in sheepskin, a material the ancient Egyptians considered to be ritually impure. Eventually, someone placed Pentawere's mummy in a cache of other mummies in a tomb at Deir el-Bahari.
The prince can take solace in the fact that his assassination attempt appears to have been successful. In 2012, a team of scientists studying the mummy of Ramesses III (reign 1184-1155 B.C.) found that Ramesses III died after his throat was slashed, likely in the assassination attempt that Pentawere helped to orchestrate. The scientists also performed genetic analysis, which confirmed that the "screaming mummy" was a son of Ramesses III. And, based on the mummy's unusual burial treatment, the researchers confirmed that it is likely Pentawere's mummy.
The "screaming mummy," Prince Pentawere, a man who tried (likely successfully) to kill his own father pharaoh Ramesses III, is now on public display at the Egyptian Museum.
[In Photos: The Mummy of King Ramesses III]
Ramses
Scholars have long been puzzled about the death of Ramesses III, believed to have ruled from about 1186 B.C. to 1155 B.C. during Egypt's 20th dynasty. Research by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and colleagues had found evidence he died immediately after his throat was slit, severing his trachea, esophagus and large blood vessels. "The large and deep cut wound in his neck must have been caused by a sharp knife or other blade," the team wrote in a paper on their findings, published in the British Medical Journal on Dec. 17, 2012.
More recent research by Hawass and Cairo University radiologist Sahar Saleem suggests a group of assailants murdered the pharaoh. The duo found Ramesses III's toe had been hacked off with an ax, pointing to more than one assailant using different weapons. Here's a look at what scientists have found so far in the pharaoh's murder mystery.
A subsequent CT scan that was done in Egypt by Ashraf Selim and Sahar Saleem, professors of radiology at Cairo University, revealed that beneath the bandages was a deep knife wound across the throat, deep enough to reach the vertebrae. According to the documentary narrator, "It was a wound no one could have survived."[22] The CT scan revealed that his throat was cut to the bone, severing the trachea, esophagus, and blood vessels, which would have been rapidly fatal.
