Of all the civilizations that ruled the various regions of our planet over the last six millennia, give or take, few continue to hold the same mystique and intrigue that Ancient Egypt does.
For well over 3,000 years Egypt was the most powerful kingdom on earth, and its long line of pharaohs were the most powerful people on earth. Carved out of desert lands in northeastern Africa and powered economically by the rich agricultural benefits of the mighty Nile River and accompanying trade opportunities it offered, its massive limestone pyramids and monuments to the kings and queens who ruled and the gods they worshipped are the only one of seven surviving wonders of the ancient world.
Backed by a capable military that included vast land armies and a formidable navy, Egypt remained the world’s principle power from roughly 3150 BC to about 30 BC. Its subsequent decline was rather sharp after Roman legions led by Octavian finally crushed the combined forces of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.
Exactly 100 years ago tomorrow, Nov. 4, the tomb of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. That said, Tutankhamun – or ‘King Tut,’ the handle he was given in the years that followed – up until that point wasn’t overly well known compared to others like Ramesses II, Hatshepsut, or Thutmose the Great. No doubt he was revered at the time by his subjects, but it was the abundance and incredible state of the items found in his tomb that truly propelled him to stardom during the 20th century. Howard Carter’s highly-publicized discovery of Tut’s tomb drove people in the western world into a frenzy, sparking a renewed interest in Egyptology.
‘The boy king’ came to power around 1332 BC at the tender age of about eight. Tut would reign for about 10 years until his untimely death in 1323 BC, the cause of which is still relatively unknown but debated relentlessly following the examination of his mummy. During his decade as pharaoh, Tutankhamun returned Egypt to the traditional polytheistic worship of multiple gods after his father and predecessor had ‘amalgamated’ the kingdom’s religion into one god; he also relocated Egypt’s capital back to Thebes and restored monuments throughout its borders.
Tut was not the healthiest of pharaohs. He was fairly short and had an overbite; later autopsies revealed he had scoliosis, bone necrosis, and also suffered from severe malarial infections over the course of his life.
Historians believe that Tutankhamun died rather unexpectedly – not surprising considering he was 18ish years old – and would explain why his tomb was fairly small considering his status as Egypt’s ruler; there simply wasn’t time to finish one on a grander scale. It has been recorded that the tomb was robbed at least twice in the years after his burial, after which the entrance became lost and hidden due to debris from adjacent tombs falling in front of it. That is, until Carter and his team his team finally hit proverbial pay dirt over 3,000 years after Tut’s demise.
Over 5,000 items were found in the tomb, including a solid gold coffin and Tut’s iconic golden death mask, the latter of which has since become the defining piece associated with the pharaohs. It took Carter a decade to properly catalogue everything inside the site.
In addition to the find itself, the years that followed also generated quite a few headlines in newspapers around the world. The so-called legend of the ‘mummy’s curse’ appeared to carry some weight for a period of time, after some members of Carter’s team began dying in the years that followed. Those deaths would appear to be just coincidence, but people love a good story, and newspapers are always on the hunt.
The money behind Carter’s Tut dig was the first to go; George Herbert, an English lord, died in 1923 after a mosquito bite became infected. Others died in subsequent years of apparent natural causes associated with illnesses. Carter himself died of lymphoma in 1939.
One of the more interesting ‘coincidences’ associated with the apparent curse of Tut’s tomb is related to a gift that Carter presented to a friend. He was given a paperweight made of a mummified hand complete with a scarab bracelet. The inscription on it read: ‘Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence.’ Not long after receiving the peculiar present, the man’s house burned down. After it was rebuilt, a flood destroyed it again. There’s little doubt that the paperweight could not be found on his coffee table for the third time around. ‘Pestilence’ could have manifested itself in a number of unpleasant ways to be sure.
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This is a bi-weekly opinion column; for question or comment contact Dan McNee at dmcnee@midwesternnewspapers.com.
