On a cold day in March 1939 a small congregation of nine people stood around a gravestone which had the following inscription: 'May your spirit live, may you spend millions of years, you who love Thebes, sitting with your face to the north wind, your eyes beholding happiness,' the quote was written on the gravestone of Howard Carter, and is taken from the wishing cup of Tutankhamun,
At the age of 17 Howard Carter travelled to Egypt as a young artist hired to sketch artifacts. He went on to become an important archaeologist, and the lead excavator of the tomb of King Tutankhamun
In 1903 Lord Carnarvon was involved in a serious car accident, and was advised to seek a warmer climate in the winter months so he spent the following winters in Egypt, where his fascination with the ancient Egyptian culture was born. He became an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist, and whilst in Luxor he was introduced to Howard Carter, and In 1907, Howard Carter began work for Lord Carnarvon, who employed him to supervise the excavation of nobles' tombs in Deir el-Bahri, on the West Bank of Luxor. Gaston Maspero, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, recommended Carter to Carnarvon as he knew he would apply modern archaeological methods and systems of recording. Carter soon developed a good working relationship with his patron, Lord Carnarvon
In 1914, Carnarvon applied and received a license to dig in the Valley of the Kings unfortunately the first World War interrupted their search. Carter spent the war years working for the British Government as a diplomatic courier and translator. until 1917 when they enthusiastically resumed their search for Tutankhamun's tomb once more. On 4 November 1922, their young water boy accidentally stumbled on a stone, he immediately ran to Howard Carter to tell him, and howard immediately instructed the workers to dig this area that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the bedrock. Carter had the steps partially dug out until the top of a mud-plastered doorway was found. The doorway was stamped with indistinct cartouches Carter ordered the staircase to be refilled, and sent a telegram to Carnarvon, who arrived from England a few weeks later accompanied by his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert
The subsequent clearing of the tomb and its contents took more than ten years including the artefacts’ conservation and transport to Cairo.
Curses :
On 19 March 1923, Lord Carnarvon suffered a severe mosquito bite which became infected by a razor cut, he died of blood poisoning on 5 April 1923 in the Continental-Savoy hotel in Cairo.
The death of Lord Carnarvon six weeks after the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb resulted in many curse stories in the press. Obviously this sort of report would sell many newspapers
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, suggested that Lord Carnarvon's death had been caused by 'elementals' created by Tutankhamun's priests to guard the royal tomb. Doyle was a great believer in spiritualism. According to the press of the time, the famous author blamed Carnarvon’s death on an 'evil elemental' that guarded the tomb and had avenged its profaners.
Howard Carter was entirely skeptical of curses, dismissing them as 'tommy-rot' and commenting that 'the sentiment of the Egyptologist ... is not one of fear, but of respect and awe ... entirely opposed to foolish superstitions.
On the day the tomb was discovered, a cobra broke into Carter’s house and killed his canary, leading people to believe that indeed the spirit of the dead had been violated. a Cobra was a symbol of protection of the king, it guards the gates of the underworld, wards off the enemies of the royals and guides the deceased pharaohs on their journey through the underworld.
Skeptics have pointed out that many others who visited the tomb or helped to discover it lived long and healthy lives. Of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years
Inside the tomb Magic bricks’ were inscribed with chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead and placed in niches within the tomb of Tutankhamun at the four cardinal points of the earth to form a defensive perimeter around Tutankhamun.
Egyptian curses are primarily a cultural, not scientific, phenomenon, These appear to be directed towards the ka priests to protect the tomb carefully and preserve its ritual purity rather than as a warning for potential robbers
A study of documents and scholarly sources led to conclude that it was unlikely that Carnarvon's death had anything to do with Tutankhamun's tomb, refuting another theory that exposure to toxic fungi (mycotoxins) had contributed to his demise.
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