The search for relics of ancient civilizations always involves certain risks. These risks have both physical and mystical reasons. Often, the only thing that remains from the ancient civilization is the remains of buildings or burials. Leaving behind these or those values, the ancients, as best they could, took care that their achievements did not become the prey of all people of adventurous professions - from banal robbers to researchers. And the larger and more magnificent this or that creation was, the higher was its degree of protection from outsiders.
It should be especially noted that people who lived before us are concerned about the safety of their graves. Most of the ancient cults, conducting burial rituals, sent things (and sometimes creatures) close to him to the “other world” with the deceased. Sometimes it came to very barbaric actions - such as killing all the servants or the harem of concubines and the like. Remnants of these traditions are still alive in some modern states. For example, in India, at the legislative level, they still do not prevent spouses from proceeding to the funeral pyre with their deceased half. Outside the window is the 21st century, India is a nuclear and space power with a booming industry, but similar savagery is practiced in it.
An important role in protecting burials from looting was played not only by various deceitful methods or traps set in the tombs, but also by deliberately spread rumors about the inevitable retribution of the dead for such an outrage against their eternal sleep. However, this is not surprising: almost all cultures had certain taboos on any actions performed on the remains of the dead.
One of such episodes, when the "retribution" of the dead, allegedly reached its goal was the Curse of the Pharaohs - the death for several years of key figures who participated in the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb.
This burial, despite its relatively small (by the standards of Ancient Egypt) value, was the only fully preserved burial of the Egyptian pharaoh. Its value for modern science was simply enormous. In addition to jewelry and gold, whose total weight exceeded 300 kilograms, drawings and inscriptions were found in the tomb that shed light on many interesting facts from the history of Egypt. The sensation was so deafening that it aroused great interest not only among historians and archaeologists, but also caused a huge influx of tourists and treasure seekers to Egypt.
But what happened in the coming years, significantly cooled the ardor of not only superstitious people, but also quite sensible individuals. Of the approximately one and a half dozen participants in the autopsy of the tomb, five died within a year after the autopsy, three more in the next 3 years and four within 7 years. It got to the point that upon learning about these events, Mussolini personally ordered the removal of one of the ancient Egyptian mummies presented to him from the Roman museum.
All deaths were not only sudden, but also very mysterious. The reason for some has not yet been clarified. These events were reflected in many works of art and gave abundant ground for thought not only to the scientific community, but also to a huge number of all kinds of mystics and charlatans.
However, if you critically look at the circumstances of the death of these people, it becomes clear that there is nothing supernatural in these events. Most of those who died were over 70 years old, others had chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis. In addition, one of them, shot by his own wife, according to testimony, had a bad relationship with her long before the excavation of the mummy. Etc. The fact that everything so coincidentally coincided with Tutankhamun's mummy should not be misleading - more than 800 mummies were found in Egypt, and no other such dramatic events happened with any of them.
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It is also interesting that the popularizer of the legend of the Curse of the Pharaohs was a certain Arthur Weigall. He in every possible way "sketched" in his articles new "facts" concerning the Curse, in conversations with archaeologists and Egyptologists, he always mentioned it and in general, behaved like a typical propagandist. However, as it turned out later, Weigall bought from the expedition sponsors the right to single-handedly cover events related to the tomb of Tutankhamun, depriving other editors and journalists of the right to write about them. However, fate played a cruel joke on him. When he died (12 years after the opening of the tomb), with the light hand of some journalist, Weigall was also attributed to the victims of the Curse.
No less interesting is the case of the curse of King Casimir. The Polish king Casimir II lived in the 14th century and was buried in a crypt in Krakow. His crypt was opened in the second half of the last century, and literally within a year, 12 of the 14 study participants died. However, everything turned out to be even more prosaic than with the pharaoh. The forensic medical examination has reliably established the cause of death of the archaeologists: damage to the respiratory system by mold. The undergrounds of Krakow are not Eastern Sahara with dry air and a temperature of +50 degrees; neither fungi nor pathogenic bacteria would have survived in the climate of Egypt, but in Krakow - easily.
And, nevertheless, the curses of the ancients still have some kind of power of their own, because even now, even despite the efforts of vandals, such as "black archaeologists", there remains a huge number of burials and burial structures that remain intact. However, this phenomenon also has its own explanation - most of the surviving burial mounds belong either to the Late Bronze Age, or to the Early Iron Age, or to the beginning of the Middle Ages. And during these periods, funeral ceremonies did not imply the laying of any decorations in the last refuge of a person. The maximum that can be found in them is the everyday things of the deceased and sacrifices in the form of skeletons of domestic animals. For the sake of such mining, illegal diggers will not shovel tens of tons of earth.