THE DISCOVERY    THE CURSE    ANNOTATIONS    CITATIONS

The Origins of a Curse

George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, herein known as Lord Carnarvon was a substantially wealthy man in his time. He funded an archaeologist Howard Carter to excavate in Egypt, only Carter had been turning up empty many a times. Lord Carnavon was about to pull the finances from the digs that he had been funding, but Carter pleaded for one more season and thus the money from Lord Carnarvon came through to continue. Such graciousness would be warranted to such an attempt from a privately funded excavation. Carnarvon himself was an amateur Egyptologist and was in fact wealthy but had piddled away most of his money with his lifestyle and constant sponsoring of excavations, relying on his wife's fortune that was passed on by her father. (Radford 2014) This one last shot Carter was given granted him to push on, knowing he must get lucky soon such the funds would no longer be available from his financer, but with Lord Carnarvon's funding he was able to discover the greatest treasures of the world today.

It is ironic that (reportedly) such a lascivious man such as Lord Carnarvon would succumb to a death after such a glorious, rich discovery. You see, he had married his wife Alimina Wombwell who was the daughter of Alfred de Rothschild, the Director of the Bank of England. She had millions to her name, and Lord Carnarvon had the title, she had the money. Match made in heaven. Lord Carnarvon was also a gambling man, all of these things may have just been coincidental to his comeuppance.  The Earl of Carnarvon fell ill shortly after the discovery on March 19,1923 after being bitten by a mosquito, then shaving over it leading it to become infected. This lead to a severe infection of sepsis, he died shortly after on April 5, 1923 in Cairo. Factually Mr. Herbert had been ill and in failing health prior due to an auto accident decades earlier and perhaps that is why the seemingly innocent bite turned into a deadly infection (Merchant 2013).

It is said that all the lights went out in Cairo, and his dog thousands of miles away died at the same time in his home. This must be attributed to the curse surely? Factually the electricity in Cairo was notorious for having rolling black outs and that may have just been coincidence. Even current Director of Egyptian Antiquities of Egypt, Zahi Hawass, claims a curse is amongst the Valley of the Kings. Is this to keep the public from disrespecting and desecrating sites? Perhaps, or perhaps the stew of bad luck that is associated amongst the discovery of King Tutankhamun is the pharaohs warning.

It is said on many Egyptian tombs that with the desecration of a tomb, that anyone who dares to disturb it will suffer the curse of the pharaohs. The one supposedly inscribed on the entrance of King Tutankhamun's tomb would read:

"Death will come on swift pinions to those who disturb the rest of the Pharoah" (Ceram, 1968)

 

Other deaths associated with the curse were in the numbers, most of which no association with the tomb had and were referenced by Howard Carter himself. Did Carter see this as the perfect opportunity for the word to spread and fame to gain, or that he truly wanted people to stay away from the tomb so he could do his job as an archaeologist? 

If one thing is for certain you would expect the man himself, Howard Carter,that discovered, excavated and spent countless hours in the tomb, even coming face to face with the boy king himself, would have suffered the full blow of the curse. However that was not the case, good ole Carter himself lived to the ripe age of 64, dying of natural causes. So this leads to the question, if the curse was Carters invention is it the curse associated with so many deaths that of Howard Carter and not the curse of King Tutankhamun?

The Reality
It is highly known that tombs that are closed for thousands of years, with the sacraments of decaying food, animals and humans trapped inside an air tight tomb leads to bacterial spores that can be deadly. If anyone suddenly tragically died from 'unknown reasons' could have easily been associated with entering a tomb without proper ventilation. However this still leaves the very fact that the one who spent the most time in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, Carter, was spared.

The Media
Despite the initial reports of a curse that was engraved on the tomb thousands of years ago, Howard Carter accentuated this concept of a curse to keep the media attention to a minimal so that the archaeological process amid the security presence would not be disturbed. This was sensationalized by the media, and sparked even more curiosity eventually becoming a popular theme among news stories and even making its way into the silver screen with a multitude of Mummy movies from 1930-now. Several movies stemmed from this outburst of claims dealing with the curse of the mummy. Though it seemed to be nonsensical, people flocked to the romanticism of these great gods living, breathing out their fate in a supernatural curse. As long as we have Brendan Fraser battling mummies, I think we are safe.