January 3: On This Day in World History … briefly
His names; Tutankhaten and Tutankhamun are thought to mean 'Living image of Aten' and 'Living image of Amun', with Aten replaced by Amun after Akhenaten's death.
1924: Curse rumours surround Pharaoh’s tomb opening
British archaeologist Howard Carter made a dazzling discovery in Egypt’s Valley of Kings – a pharaoh’s tomb filled with treasure, including a solid gold coffin, a gold mask, jewellery and other artifacts. The tomb was that of Tutankhamun, a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, who died over 3 000 years ago. Egyptologists stated that this was by far the richest of the few royal burial chambers that survived comparatively intact. The Valley of Kings contains royal burial sites dating from the 18th and 19th dynasties of the New Kingdom, from about 1570 to 1200 BC. More than 60 royal tombs were known at the time, including that of Ramses VI. It was below his tomb that Carter unearthed the new find.
Carter joined the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1891 as a draughtsman and was trained by Sir Flinders Petrie. He became Egypt’s Inspector-General of Antiquities in 1899. Since 1907 he worked with Lord Carnavon in the hunt for this tomb, after locating its entrance two years prior. For many years, rumors of a ‘curse of the pharaohs’ (probably fueled by newspapers seeking sales at the time of the discovery) persisted, emphasising the early death of some of those who had entered the tomb.
The most prominent was George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who died on 5 April 1923, five months after the discovery of the first step leading down to the tomb on 4 November 1922.
The cause of Carnarvon’s death was pneumonia supervening on facial erysipelas (a streptococcal infection of the skin and underlying soft tissue). The Earl had been in an automobile accident in 1901 making him very unhealthy and frail. His doctor recommended a warmer climate so in 1903 the Carnarvon’s traveled to Egypt where the Earle became interested in Egyptology. Along with the stresses of the excavation, Carnarvon was already in a weakened state when an infection lead to pneumonia.
A study showed that of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years; Howard Carter died of lymphoma in 1939 at the age of 64. The last survivors included Lady Evelyn Herbert, Lord Carnarvon’s daughter who was among the first people to enter the tomb after its discovery in November 1922, who lived for a further 57 years and died in 1980, and American archaeologist JO Kinnaman who died in 1961, 39 years after the event.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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