The entrance of a tomb was found on November 4, 1922, by archaeologist Howard Carter and his crew in Luxor, Egypt's Valley of the Kings. On November 26, three weeks later, Carter pounded a hole in a stone wall in an underground passageway. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon, his friend and supporter, asked him whether he could see anything as he pointed his torch into the night.
According to his book "The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen," which he co-wrote in 1923 with Arthur Cruttenden Mace, he said, "Yes, lovely stuff." Gold, jewels, and other spectacular treasures were suddenly discovered for the first time in more than 3,000 years, and the attention of the entire world was focused on a little-known pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty.
Faster than that, talk of a curse perhaps afflicting everyone who had entered King Tut's tomb began to gain popularity. People began to believe that anyone who had dared desecrate the pharaoh's final resting place was cursed by an evil spell as a result of sudden deaths, terrible tragedy, and other unexplainable occurrences.
After each disaster, Luxor was the target of a media frenzy. Newspaper headlines blared about the "Curse of the Pharaohs" shortly after the first archeologist passed away a few months after the tomb was discovered, and they stated, "Famous Spiritualist Sees Occult Reason for Fatality."
But was a curse actually present? Mold observed on mummies and in the air at Egyptian burial sites, according to other studies, offers a less interesting explanation.
The notion of a "mummy's curse" predates the discovery of Tutankhamen by a century. In the 1820s, it might have started in England. According to the British newspaper the Independent, Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat claimed to have found the first mention of it in a London "striptease" show in 2000.
At the tomb of Tutankhamen, the Egyptian monarch who passed away at the age of 18 or 19 in the year 1323 B.C., no hieroglyphic curse was ever discovered. DNA testing has revealed that his mother was his father's sister and that his father is considered to have been the pharaoh Akhenaten. King Tut had a club foot and scoliosis, which may have been brought on by the royal family's custom of incest.
The idea of a curse was rejected by Carter himself as "tommy rot." In his book "Howard Carter and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun," H.V.F. Winstone quotes Howard Carter as saying, "The feeling of the Egyptologist… is not one of dread, but of reverence and awe… completely opposed to silly superstitions."
Less than five months after the tomb was unveiled, Lord Carnarvon's passing on April 5, 1923, gave rise to suspicions of a curse. As more archaeologists and explorers fell ill and passed away, reports of this possibility were widely available in the newspapers. "Vengeance of King Tut Is Seen as Death List Mounts," read the title of an item published in the New York Daily News in 1926.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the well-known Sherlock Holmes tales, added insult to injury. Doyle, a well-known spiritualist, speculated to a reporter that "some evil elemental may have caused Lord Carnarvon's terminal illness" after learning of his friend's passing.
More than 20 sealed coffins left by the ancient Egyptians are found by archaeologists.
After the earl passed away, more people perished, including an American financier named George Jay Gould who passed away from pneumonia shortly after seeing the tomb in 1923, a British X-ray expert named Sir Archibald Douglas Reid who passed away shortly after viewing the mummy in London, and an American archaeologist named James Henry Breasted who lived until 1935 but passed away from an infection following his final trip to Egypt.
In addition, a string of unfavorable incidents that affected others who had visited the tomb fueled into the media craze. Hugh Evelyn-White, a British archaeologist who participated in the Luxor dig, committed suicide in 1924. He allegedly left a message saying, "I have fallen victim to a curse." Richard Bethell, Carter's personal secretary, was discovered suffocated to death at his London men's club in 1929. He was the first person to enter the grave behind his employer. Some historians think that the English magician Aleister Crowley killed him.
Carter passed away from Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphatic cancer, in 1939, exactly 17 years after its discovery. Yet while publishing his obituary, newspapers all throughout the world centered nearly entirely on the "Curse of the Pharaohs."
Science has a more logical explanation today. According to studies, at least part of the deaths may have been caused by an organic source. On King Tut's mummy, common mold, particularly Aspergillus, may have been found. People with compromised immune systems are known to develop deadly infections from the fungus.
In a 2003 letter to the British medical journal the Lancet, English doctors Sherif El-Tawil and Tariq El-Tawil stated that "potentially harmful fungi survive for extremely long periods of time in tombs, and results of research indicate that such prolonged phases of dormancy can result in increased virulence."
The passing of Lord Carnarvon, who suffered from upper respiratory conditions and was ill most of his life, seems to support the theory. He passed away on April 5, 1923, from pneumonia brought on by blood poisoning from a mosquito bite on his face that grew septic when he nicked it with a razor. This is according to his obituary in the New York Times. The El-Tawils reported that it was probable Aspergillus exposure that led to the fatal streptococcus infection that ultimately claimed his life when he cut himself with a razor.
According to the El-Tawils, Aspergillus spores "grow exceptionally well on grain, which was in plentiful supply in Tutankhamen's tomb, with offers of bread and uncooked grains placed in multiple baskets. As the sealed tomb was opened, Lord Carnarvon could easily have inhaled polluted grain dust.
DNA evidence indicates the origin of the Black Death.
Two types of the fungi, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus, have been discovered in more recent scientific examinations on Egyptian mummies and tombs. These strains can result in a variety of allergic reactions, from chest congestion to pulmonary hemorrhaging, or bleeding in the lungs, according to National Geographic.
It is speculative to believe that mold played a role in the earl's death or any other deaths. For years, researchers have argued in favor of and against the concept. It will only be a theory without concrete proof.
Which naturally makes the "curse of the mummy" myth even more lasting.
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