It is hailed as one of the greatest archaeological finds and one of the best preserved tombs of a pharaoh ever discovered but after some strange deaths many came to question if the tomb was cursed.
Ancient Egyptian culture has fascinated and captivated many people for years and this continuing interest has been further fuelled by their vast religious beliefs and the countless discoveries of fantastic artefacts that had once been used by Pharaoh's, beautifully intricate artwork and hieroglyphs that have stood the test of time adorning the tomb walls. Ancient Egypt remains one of the most popular and well known ancient civilisations to have ever existed and yet still so much has yet to be discovered.
THE BOY WHO BECAME KING
Tutankhamun (1341 - 1321BC) ascended the throne of Ancient Egypt after the death of his father Akhenaten at the age of nine, he ruled for ten years until his own death at the age of 19. Tutankhamun's reign is most notable for the reversal of his father's very controversial decision to change his country's religion, changing from polytheism (the worshipping of many gods) to worshipping Aten (disc of the sun) alone. After Akhenaten's death, his monuments were largely dismantled and hidden, his statues were destroyed and his name was excluded from the list of rulers compiled by later pharaohs and Akhenaten and his lineage were later referred to as "the enemy" or "that criminal" in archival records.
Statue of Akhenaten
The identity of the mother of Tutankhamun has been hotly debated as some people believe his mother to be the famous Nefertiti but DNA testing has confirmed his mother to be a mummy called The Younger Lady. This woman has been identified as the full blood sister of Tutankhamun's father Akhenaten which means The Younger Lady cannot be identified as Nefertiti as she was not known to be a sister of Akhenaten. There is some debate about this DNA tests accuracy due to a decay in the DNA materials and the fact that the genetic closeness is not a sibling match but that of a first cousin making Nefertiti and Akhenaten related.
Statue of Nefertiti
When Tutankhamun became pharaoh he married his half sister, Ankhesenpaaten (she later changed her name to Ankhesenamun). They had two daughters but both of these died in infancy. A study in 2011 showed that the one daughter had been born prematurely at 5 to 6 months gestation and the other daughter had been a full term baby at 9 months but unfortunately both of these little girls were delivered stillborn and they were both deformed. The deformities of Tutankhamun's infant daughters have led to speculation that the incestuous relationship of the pharaoh and his sister are what led to their deaths. As his daughters never lived, Tutankhamun's death marked the end of his royal line of the 18th Dynasty.
WHAT KILLED THE YOUNG KING?
The early death of Tutankhamun brought about an abrupt end to his reign, this sudden death has intrigued many archaeologists and after countless examinations on his mummy they were left with more questions than definite answers. Due to inbreeding Tutankhamun suffered many genetic defects that can be plainly seen on the examinations of his mummy but renowned Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass and his team believe Tutankhamun's death was down to his multiple weakening disorders, a leg fracture he sustained very near his death and a severe malarial infection. But another team argued that sickle cell anaemia is a more likely cause for the King's death.
Recreation of Tutankhamun
In 2010, scientists found traces of malaria parasites in Tutankhamun's mummy and theorised that the pharaoh had died of a combination of malaria and a degenerative bone disease.
Murder has also been theorised, a 1968 x-ray of Tutankhamun's skull showed two bone fragments inside but this theory was later dismissed as the skull fragments and damage had been caused by modern attempts at unwrapping the King as the bone fragments are loose and not stuck to the embalming resin. It has been thought that Tutankhamun's death was caused by a chariot accident due to the injuries present on his mummy which are consistent with being crushed, the front part of his chest and ribs are missing but photographs that were taken at the time of the discovery of his tomb showed the King's chest wall was intact and that he was wearing a beaded collar with falcon headed terminals. It is thought that this was stolen by robbers as it was noted as being missing in the 1968 x-ray along with the intricate beaded skullcap Tutankhamun was wearing in the 1926 photos.
THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMUN
Tutankhamun was buried in a tomb in the customary Valley of the Kings where pharaohs had been buried from the 16th to 11th centuries BC. His tomb is an oddly small one for someone who was a pharaoh which has led some people to believe that the young King had died unexpectedly before a more lavish tomb could be completed resulting in his mummy being buried in a tomb which had been intended for someone else. Ancient Egyptian burial rites decreed that 70 days would have to pass from death to burial. His tomb was robbed at least twice, the items taken were perfumes and oils and from the evidence of restoration it is thought these happened several months after the burial and that the robbers were discovered by guards hence why nothing of real value was taken. The entrance was lost over time as it was covered by debris from other tombs and as the people were still unhappy about the new rules surrounding religion brought about by Tutankhamun's father, people still held a lot of ill feeling towards the family and so not much interest was shown in preserving his tomb. Tutankhamun also had his name erased and monuments usurped by his former general, Horemheb, who became pharaoh afterwards.
Layout of the tomb of Tutankhamun
NOT ERASED FROM HISTORY AFTER ALL
After archaeological searches in the Valley of the Kings discovered the lost pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, people became inspired to keep excavating to find more evidence of this past time. In 1922, English archaeologist Howard Carter had been working for over 30 years to find an ancient lost tomb with the financial help of Lord Carnarvon. Carter had been trying to find the lost tomb of Tutankhamun, which had been made difficult because trying to find tombs from that period in time was incredibly hard as they had been ransacked by robbers already.
On the 4th November 1922 a breakthrough happened when a water boy accidentally found the steps that led down to the lost pharaohs tomb. Once the team had gained access they were shocked at the sheer volume of items the tomb contained and that they had remained untouched compared to the heavily robbed tomb of other pharaohs. Tutankhamun's mummy itself was well preserved and when his ornate golden sarcophagus was opened for the first time in thousands of years it was truly a sight to behold. Carter would go down in history for this amazing find and launch Tutankhamun into the fame that he probably would only have dreamed of in life.
Howard Carter
Howard Carter became worried about the prospect of greedy tomb robbers, so he published a story about a curse that would strike down anyone who dared to disturb the boy King's final resting place, of course it was a well known fact that all royal tombs were meant to have this protective "curse" on them. With this opening of the tomb there was a further worry that something else could be unleashed because it was so old and the remains of a once mighty pharaoh had been disturbed.
THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOH
Although many think of a murderous mummy seeking revenge on those who dared disturb their final resting place, the legend of The Curse of the Pharaoh or King Tut's Curse soon gained traction as some of the people that had been involved in the opening of the young pharaohs tomb began to die. The idea of a curse was widely spread by none other than Sir Arthur Conan, best known as the author of Sherlock Holmes, who said an evil elemental spirit had been unleashed which had been created by priests to protect Tutankhamun's mummy.
Famous Egyptologist James Henry Breasted worked alongside Howard Carter soon after the tomb was opened, he later recalled that Carter had sent a messenger to his home asking him to come to the dig site and when he got there discovered the birdcage usually occupied by Carter's canary now had a cobra inside it and the canary was dead inside the Cobra's mouth. The cobra is of course a symbol of the Egyptian monarchy and as the canary had died inside the cobras mouth it lead to local people believing that a curse had indeed been unleashed.
Lord George Herbert
The discovery caused a worldwide press sensation and this was further fuelled by Carter's warning about a curse , it of course gained momentum and people became convinced of it's reality when a person associated with the excavation of the tomb suddenly died. Lord George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, was a British aristocrat and amateur Egyptologist who had helped finance the search died at the age of 56 (four months after the opening of the tomb) and later the lights in the city of Cairo unexpectedly went out. Sir Arthur Conan believed the elemental spirit had caused the Earl's death. Conan is remembered for being a firm believer in the supernatural.
In 1925, anthropologist Henry Field, visited the tomb and remarked on the friendliness and kindness of Howard Carter. He reported that a paperweight had been given to Carter's friend, Sir Bruce Ingram, it was of a mummified hand with it's wrist adorned with a scarab bracelet with the inscription "Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence.". Soon after the gift, Ingram's home burned down and this was followed by a flood after it had been rebuilt. It is unknown who the mummified hand belonged to.
Tutankhamun facial reconstruction shown with his death mask
In May 1926, Howard Carter noted in his diary how he had seen a jackal, the same type as the god Anubis, guardian of the dead, for the first time in over 30 years of working in the desert, although he did not credit this to any supernatural reasoning.
No such evidence of any curse has ever been found in the tomb, despite there being the popular misconception of an inscription with the curse on it inside the tomb, but the deaths of people in the years since have kept the story alive, whether they were involved with the tombs opening or had been visitors. There were 11 victims of the curse in the first ten years of the tombs discovery, they include:
Earl George Herbert / Lord Carnarvon: As mentioned above he was the first to die of the curse. On March 19th 1923, he suffered a severe mosquito bite which became infected by a razor cut. On April 5th, he died of according to reports, blood poisoning which progressed to pneumonia, another report says it was pneumonia supervening on (facial) erysipelas. At the initial autopsy for Tutankhamun, the King apparently had a healed cut on his left cheek, as the Earl had died six months previously it was impossible to check if the cut was in the same place. He died 4 months and 4 days after the opening of the tomb.
George Jay Gould: A visitor to the tomb, died on the French Rivera on May 16th 1923 after having a fever following his visit.
Colonel Hon Aubrey Herbert: The Earl's half brother, he became nearly blind and died from blood poisoning on September 26th 1923.
Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey of Egypt: Shot dead by his wife in 1923.
Sir Archibald Douglas Reid: Supposedly x-rayed the mummy and died from a mysterious illness on January 15th 1924.
Sir Lee Stack: the Governor General of the Sudan who was assassinated in Cairo in 1924.
Arthur Mace: A member of Howard Carter's excavation team is said to have died of arsenic poisoning in 1928.
Hon. Mervyn Herbert: The Earl's half brother, died on May 26th 1929 from malarial pneumonia.
Captain Richard Bethell: Howard Carter's secretary who was supposedly smothered in his bed on November 25th 1929, his father also killed himself in 1930.
Richard Luttrell Pilkington Bethell: The third Baron Westbury, died on February 20th 1980.
Howard Carter: He dismissed the curse as "tommy rot" but he died alone and miserable of Hodgkin's disease in his London flat in March 1939 at the age of 64. He felt his discovery had been ruined by the obsession over the curse. His death reignited the curse story as it was mentioned in his obituaries.
After seeing the report on the Earl many scientists thought the curse could have a more realistic cause, namely a fungus. Aspergillus is a type of mould found indoors and outdoors and when it comes into contact with people who have a weakened immune system (the Earl was known to be in bad health before his death) it can cause a severe infection. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a cough, a fever and chest pain. Mummies have been found to carry this type of fungus and ancient tombs in general have been found to be carrying many types of bacteria that could cause illness. Of course not to forget that mummies are human remains which also can have adverse effects on people if they do not handle them properly or take precautions when touching them.
Howard Carter and Tutankhamun's sarcophagus
Only 8 out of the 58 people who opened the tomb died. Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of the Earl, was the last survivor of the curse as she was among the first people to enter the tomb. She lived for 57 years and died in 1980.
OUR CONCLUSION
At Apollo's Raven, we don't believe in Tutankhamun's curse, the people who died either died from natural or totally unconnected ways such as murder. We have to remember that in the 1920's medical care was not as advanced as it is now and that some of these deaths are down to medical knowledge of the time. There is also the fungus and bacteria that thrives in these ancient tombs, without proper protection it can cause some unpleasant reactions in some people and that some medical professionals may not have known what to look for.
We also feel that if there was a curse wouldn't Howard Carter, who not only discovered the tomb but physically opened it and removed the mummy of Tutankhamun from his sarcophagus, borne the brunt of such a curse, whilst his death was unpleasant it was simply a natural cause.
While we doubt there are people who seriously believe in the curse we do feel it is simply a good story that has inspired many, perhaps Tutankhamun himself would be amused at how famous his name has become helped by a curse that's often referred to after himself.
Tutankhamun's Mummy