The Curse of King Tut

Today the entire media is full of the Obama-McCain combat in the USA. However, in an obscure corner of my mind this date rang a bell. It was on this date that the British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen.

I have always found the name Tutankhamen sounding mysterious and his story utterly fascinating. The story of the boy-king Tutankhamen, also known as King Tut, is shrouded in legends and myths. The phenomenon of Tutankhamen, also known as the King Tut, took place about 3500 years ago. He was born and dead in the 14th century before Christ.

Egyptian Civilization is one of the ancient civilizations. Stories linked with are colorful and known for their abiding human interest. We can relate them to our own experience and thus do not find them too weird. Tutankhamen’s tomb was found by Carter in an unusually well-preserved condition. Unlike other ancient Egyptian tombs, it was not ravaged by greedy robbers. What struck Carter was an inscription on the sarcophagus in which the body of King Tut was preserved. What is the story of Tutankhamen and why his name became so famous in 20th century? It was a carefully preserved tomb. It had a large number of artifacts. A golden death mask covered the mummy of King Tut. That mask has now become a symbol of the great ancient Egyptian civilization.

The story begins in the very hoary past, very long ago. Archeologists have tried to construct details of his life and times from a large number of bits of evidence discovered at various sites in Egypt.

Tutankhamen, or King Tut, was born in the year 1341 before Christ and died when he was about 19 year of age. Egyptian ancient history is full of dynasties. King Tut was 12th ruler of 18th Egyptian dynasty. He ruled for about eight year. He was a stepson of another ancient Egyptian luminary Queen Nefertiti, and he married his stepsister, daughter of Nefertiti.

There are reasons to suspect that King Tut was murdered. An X-ray taken in 1968 led to the theory that he died of a blow on his head. However, later research has shown, though not conclusively, that he might have died of blood poisoning after he had broken one of his legs.

However, Tutankhamen’s name became famous because of weird stories associated with his tomb. On his tomb were engraved the following words: Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the king.

Warning of this kind is normally found on the tombs of Egyptian mummies. But the warning on the tomb of Tut did not prove to be an empty threat. Carter discovered the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen on November 4, 1922. He sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon, his patron and financier who came running from England and reached Egypt on November 26. He visited the excavation site and admired the accomplishments of Carter. However, His lordship died soon after returning to Cairo from the site of excavation. Legend has it that when he there was an unexplained power failure in Cairo. Lord Carnavon’s son reported from London that their favorite dog howled mysteriously and died same day. It was found that the death of Lord Carnavon was due to an insect bite on his left cheek. In 1925, when the mummy of Tutankhamen was unwrapped, it was found that the preserved mummy of Tut had a wound exactly at the same spot as the insect bite on Lord Carnavon’ cheek.

By 1929, eleven people who were linked directly or indirectly with the tomb had died prematurely and of unnatural causes. This included: two relatives of Carnavon; Carter’s personal secretary Richard Bethell; Lord Westbury (father of Bethell), who committed suicide by jumping from a building. His suicide note said, “I really cannot stand any more horrors and hardly see what good I am going to do here, so I am making my exit.”

The English press followed deaths carefully and chronicled each one of them ascribing them to the curse of Tutankhamen. By the year 1935 there were 21 victims believed to have died from the curse of Tutankhamen.

However, there is another way of looking at it. Herbert Winlock, the head of the Metropolitan Museum of New York figured out that out of 22 people present at the opening of the tomb in 1922, only six had passed away by 1934, and out of 22 people present at the opening of the sarcophagus in 1924, only two had passed away by 1934. When the mummy of Tut was unwrapped in 1925, nobody who was present at that occasion had died by 1934.

In 2002, Mark Nelson, an Australian scholar showed that the curse of Tutankhamen was only a myth. He considered a group of 44 people who were alive at the time the tomb was discovered in 1922. Out of this group 25 were supposed to be exposed to the curse because they were in some way linked directly or indirectly with the opening of the tomb, sarcophagus, the coffin, or the mummy. He found out that those supposed to be exposed to the curse had the same length of survival as those who had never heard of the phenomenon of Tutankhamen.

The last word on the subject is provided by the fact that Howard Carter, the archeologist who initiated whole episode of King Tut lived till the age of 66. He did not die under suspicious circumstances.