Nothing can be said for sure. We will read the classic version of the discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh later, but now let's get acquainted with the mysterious version.
An analysis of the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the famous tomb of Tutankhamun suggests a seditious thought: this is one of the largest falsifications in the history of archeology.
In the history of archeology, there is hardly an event comparable in significance to the discovery of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, made in 1922 by Howard Carter. Although robbers entered the burial chamber in ancient times, it was not stolen, and scientists found in it countless treasures, many items of ancient Egyptian use and a completely intact mummy.
But here's a riddle: an inscription was found in the tomb - "Death with rapid steps will overtake the one who will disturb the peace of the dead ruler!" And in real life this warning came true almost literally. For eight years after the excavation, almost all of the people involved died one after another, with the exception of Carter himself! And now for the eighth decade, experts have been looking for an explanation of this mysterious "curse of the pharaohs." Some believe that the heavenly punishment befell the archaeologists for plundering the grave. Others argue that the Egyptian priests "settled" pathogenic bacteria in the tomb, which killed the unwary scientists. Meanwhile, the untimely death of people directly associated with the excavation can get a more prosaic explanation …
The story of a sensational discovery
The Englishman Carter and his sponsor Lord Carnarvon began large-scale excavations in the Valley of the Kings in the fall of 1917. Subsequently, Carter repeatedly stated that he was going to find the tomb of Tutankhamun. He immediately attacked the place where the discovery was later made. But for some unknown reason, archaeologists soon moved to another area of the Valley of the Kings. By 1922 they dug it up and down, not finding anything significant. Only the area from which the work began has remained relatively poorly studied. And so, finally, it was decided to plow it too. On November 3, 1922, Carter (Carnarvon was in London), having broken the remains of ancient dwellings, discovered stone steps. After they were cleared of rubble, it became clear: some kind of tomb had been found, the entrance to which was walled up and sealed.
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“There could be literally anything behind this move, and I had to call on all my composure to resist the temptation to break open the door and continue the search,” Carter wrote in his diary. He ordered to fill up the excavation and wait for Carnarvon's return from England.
On November 23, the lord arrived in Egypt, and on the 24th, the workers cleared the entrance to the tomb. Carter was again in front of the sealed door. He saw that the robbers had managed to visit here - the walled passage was opened twice and repaired. Having opened the masonry, archaeologists found a corridor littered with stones. After many days of work, they reached another walled door. Making a hole in it, Carter saw a room filled with various objects. There was a golden stretcher, a massive golden throne, two statues, alabaster vases, and an unusual-looking casket. Examining the room, scientists found another sealed door between the statues. Next to it there was a mortgaged passage made by ancient robbers. Among other things, there were three large boxes in the cell, under one of them they found a small hole that led to a side room,also filled to capacity with various household items and jewelry.
And then Carter makes a strange decision: instead of continuing his research, he orders to fill up the tomb and, as he himself said, leaves for Cairo for organizational work. The excavation was rediscovered on December 16, but only on the 27th the first find was brought to the surface. Meanwhile, a narrow-gauge railway was being built to transport the treasures. On May 13, 1923, the first batch of valuables was delivered on a specially chartered steamer, which unloaded them in Cairo a week later.
On February 7, Carter resumed his work and opened the walled door to the burial chamber, which turned out to be a huge wooden sarcophagus, covered with gold plates. In addition, from this room a small passage led to another room filled with items made of gold and precious stones. Making sure that the seals on the sarcophagus were not touched, Carter sighed with relief - the robbers had not been here. After this, the studies were again suspended, and the scientists began to open the gilded sarcophagus only in the winter of 1926-1927.
Excavations of the tomb of Tutankhamun continued for five whole years. But already at the first stage of research, the legend of the "curse of the pharaoh" was born. The impetus for her appearance was the untimely death of Lord Carnarvon. In 1923 he died of blood poisoning after careless shaving. This death was followed by others no less mysterious: Archibald Reid, who had done an X-ray analysis of the mummy, suddenly passed away; A. K. Mace, who opened the burial chamber with Carter; Carter's secretary young Lord Westbourne; dies of a mosquito bite and Lady Carnarvon. Several people who participated in the excavation commit suicide: Carnarvon's half-brother Aubrey Herbert, Lord Westbourne - the father of Carter's secretary. By 1930, of the direct participants in the expedition, only Howard Carter remained alive.
And to this day there are disputes about whether this chain of deaths is an accident, whether there is a connection between them, and if so, what kind. The most fantastic version is “the curse of the pharaoh”, which is quite satisfying for sensational journalists. Alas, it does not stand up to objective criticism. Meanwhile, the official version of the mysterious deaths, expressed by Carter himself, also seems not entirely convincing. In his opinion, people of our century cannot believe in such mystical nonsense as "the curse of the Pharaoh"; most likely the chain of deaths is just an accident. However, is it possible to believe that the death of 21 scientists, one after another, who explored the tomb with him, is a fatal coincidence? Hardly!
Circumstances causing confusion
Until now, no one has taken the trouble to carefully study the very strange circumstances that accompanied the search and excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb. But their analysis allows, it turns out, not only to reveal the secret of the "curse of the Pharaoh", but also to suspect that we are dealing with the greatest archaeological falsification. From the very beginning, it should be alarming that the tomb of Tutankhamun, the only one of all those found, was not looted, although it was visited by thieves. Was she better disguised than others? Its strange layout and small size are surprising.
The next strange fact is the long excavation period. Is it possible for an inventory of wealth, household items, sarcophagi and mummies in a tomb with a total area of 80 sq. m and for their extraction, even with the greatest care, it takes almost 5 years? But the most surprising, according to common reasoning, is Carter's behavior. In 1917, starting excavations in the Valley of the Kings, he very carefully explored the area where the entrance to the burial complex of Tutankhamun was located, allegedly did not find him and for the next five years he shoveled other sites. And in 1922 he suddenly returned to a well-studied place and almost immediately came across a burial place. It was Carter, by the way, who delayed the excavation. He did not allow his colleagues to open the sealed doors and forced them to study what they had already found with unnecessary thoroughness, although this was easier to do in the laboratory.and not in place. Further, why did he need to build a narrow-gauge railway to the tomb? In order to take out not so bulky items that fit on an area comparable to the area of a good apartment in Moscow?
Quite a few oddities can be noticed in the tomb itself. Why did the robbers who had visited it, allegedly in antiquity, take nothing? Why didn't they, having penetrated into the burial chamber, did not open the wooden sarcophagus sheathed with gold? In addition, there is another mysterious circumstance in their behavior. Some of the walled up doors were opened by them, and bypassing some of them they punched passages in the rock. Isn't it smart, isn't it? After all, it is easier to break a thin wall made of stones than to crush a monolith for days, making a move in it?
The state of almost all finds is also surprising. A huge sarcophagus sheathed with gold leaves amazed the researchers with its brilliance: not at all dusty or cloudy, it stood for more than three millennia. The condition of other items was excellent, but at the same time the inner wooden coffins, as Carter noted, were badly damaged by dampness, although the outer one remained completely intact. One gets the impression that those, unlike everything else, were kept in poor conditions, while the finds lay in the same room. And further. In the first chamber, scientists discovered four chariots, which, due to their enormous size, could not be brought into the tomb entirely and were sawn! I wonder what? Was it a bronze saw?
And finally, all the researchers noted the deplorable state of the mummy itself, although, in theory, it should be wonderful, because, unlike the mummies of other pharaohs, the priests did not transfer it from place to place, hiding it from the defilers of graves …
Tutankhamun is a creation of Carter
Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun both literally and figuratively. Not only did he find his tomb, he introduced this pharaoh into historical science. Before the Englishman began excavations in the Valley of the Kings, the data on Tutankhamun were limited to only one or two seals with the mention of his name, found by the archaeologist Davis. And then without specifying the royal title. Many scholars believed that such a pharaoh did not exist at all, and the seals could well belong to just some noble person. In other words, all data about Tutankhamun as the ruler of Egypt were obtained from Carter's excavations, that is, from his hands.
In order to uncover the mystery of the “curse of the pharaoh” and explain all the absurdities and oddities of the expedition, you need to make only one assumption, which, at first glance, may seem fantastic: Tutankhamun never existed, he is a figment of the imagination of an enterprising archaeologist.
In this case, the history of Carter's excavations is as follows. By the time the work of his expedition to the Valley of the Kings began, everyone was absolutely sure that it was impossible to find anything significant here. Many archaeologists wrote about this at different times. Thus, at the beginning of the last century, Belzoni, who excavated the graves of Ramses I, Seti I, Ey and Mintuhotep, said: "I am firmly convinced that there are no other tombs in the Biban al-Muluk valley, except those already found." Almost the same thought was expressed thirty years later by the head of the German expedition, Richard Lepsius. He argued that in the Valley of the Kings there was probably not a single grain of sand that had not been moved from one place to another at least three times. Nevertheless, archaeologists were constantly swarming in the necropolis, but their "catch" was limited exclusively to trifles. Therefore, starting to work, Carter, who,unlike Carnarvon, he was a professional scientist, he could not help but understand that great discoveries were not waiting for him.
In 1917, starting his research, he apparently came across a modest burial that belonged to some noble Egyptian. Most likely it had already been examined by other expeditions, and it, apparently, was generally empty, robbed in ancient times. Not finding anything interesting in the grave, Carter's predecessors simply filled it up, as is usually done. Perhaps it was then that the thought came to the Englishman's head to turn this empty tomb into a luxurious royal tomb. What was needed only for enterprise, time and money. However, in the first quarter of this century, the history of Ancient Egypt was already well studied. Only a few small periods remained in it, for which the names of the pharaohs were considered unknown. In one of these niches, the archaeologist decided to attach the nonexistent Tutankhamun. In order not to arouse unnecessary suspicion,his biography was declared unremarkable - he was not famous for anything, and he did not reign for long.
If his venture was successful, the clever archaeologist received the laurels of the world's No. 1 Egyptologist. It remained to resolve the issues of financing. Money could only be given by those who expected to receive dividends from the fraud. After analyzing the situation, Carter realized that there was no better sponsor than the Egyptian government. After all, it received a considerable part of the money from the sale of historical values and from the crowds of tourists eager to see the traces of ancient civilizations. In addition, official Cairo was not particularly scrupulous, periodically selling antiquities to the world's largest museums, which in fact turned out to be fakes.
Having come to this conclusion, Carter travels to Cairo to propose his bold plan to the Egyptian government. Apparently, the officials liked the proposal, and the money was allocated. Following this, preparations for falsification began, which lasted until 1922. During this period, Carter repeatedly traveled to Cairo and practically did not directly engage in the excavations conducted by his expedition. Only a few confidants secretly prepared the tomb for the "great archaeological discovery." The forgers ordered from various underground artisans specializing in forgeries "a la ancient Egypt", gold jewelry, wall bas-reliefs with fragments from the history of the reign of the pharaoh, household items and several sarcophagi. The mummy was simply bought; getting it, if funds are available, in Egypt is not difficult even today. Of course, it was not a mummy at all of the pharaoh; mummification was performed using a simpler technology than was done with the bodies of the rulers. That is why her condition was significantly worse than that of any other royal mummy.
By the second half of 1922, Carter's confidants had loaded the chamber with treasures, and he moved his party to the site already explored five years ago and quickly "found" the entrance to the burial. This development of events is confirmed by the fact that by 1922 he completely changed the entire composition of the expedition; there was no one left in it who would know about the results of the excavations of 1917. The only exception was Lord Carnarvon, but he only appeared on occasion in the Valley of the Kings and most likely was absent during the first discovery of the tomb.
Before proceeding directly to the work in the burial, Carter calls again Carnarvon, who is away, who, apparently, did not even know about the scam. All who participated in the excavations were amazed by the fact that the ancient robbers who visited the tomb did not take anything from it. Moreover, they opened the doors leading to the first chamber twice, and to the burial one - once. For thieves, the behavior, you see, is very strange. Meanwhile, this riddle is easy to explain. It's just that Carter's people added various objects to the already finished burial. They loaded the first chamber twice, and the treasury, connected to the burial chamber by an unsealed passage, one. The traces of their penetration were disguised as the traces of ancient robbers. Let's pay attention to the fact that some doors were not opened, but bypassed by underground passages. This is done in those places where actions associated with the destruction of the door could damage objects standing inside in the immediate vicinity of it. In other words, those who entered the tomb knew the location of the things stored there. Moreover, pseudo-antiquities were delivered to the excavation area right in the process of research! This assumption is supported by the idea of constructing a narrow-gauge railway. According to the official version, empty containers were transported along it in the direction of the Valley of the Kings, and packed values back. Most likely, some of the boxes were already loaded there, and they were sent back without even unpacking. Only for such shuttle flights, in fact, was the railway needed. How else to explain: the number of "valuables" allegedly taken out from the burial of Tutankhamun is so great that it could hardly fit in a room with an area of only 80 square meters.m?
The riddle of the chariots also becomes clear. They didn't really go through the doors and were sawed to pieces, not by the ancient Egyptians, but by Carter's people using ordinary saws. Traces of modern instruments also remained on a huge wooden box, lined with gold, in which numerous sarcophagi of the false pharaoh were kept. It was assembled on site from very skillfully crafted fragments. The design was so complex that some of the pieces were docked incorrectly by the workers and, pushing them on, beat them with hammers. Circular hammer marks are clearly visible in many places. It is now clear why Carter was holding back the research. He suspended them in order to once again add an additional portion of "priceless antiquities" to the still "unexplored" cells. The question arises: is it possible that none of the experienced archaeologistsfrom time to time involved in work, did not know about the grandiose falsification?
Here we come directly to the "curse of the pharaoh." Of course, some scholars have noticed the many oddities of the excavation. Lord Carnarvon was also wary. For example, the place where the tomb was discovered might have caused him great surprise. He knew that Carter had examined him in 1917 and had found nothing then. Apparently, the English aristocrat guessed about the tricks of his assistant, and he was simply removed - too much was at stake. It is possible that he died from poison, and not from injury while shaving. The same can be assumed about the fate of almost all experienced researchers who participated in the excavations, who died under mysterious circumstances. Being real scientists, they, apparently, began to doubt the authenticity of the tomb of Tutankhamun,and the falsifier had to remove them by the hands of hired killers - possibly connected with the Egyptian special services. This explains the fact that of those who studied the tomb, only he survived, although, proceeding from the “curse of the Pharaoh,” as the main defiler, he should have perished first. However, the very legend of the "curse" is also most likely put into circulation by him. Thanks to her, a clever archaeologist distracted public attention from the really strange circumstances of his expedition. Thanks to her, a clever archaeologist distracted public attention from the really strange circumstances of his expedition. Thanks to her, a clever archaeologist distracted public attention from the really strange circumstances of his expedition.
The results of Howard Carter's excavations satisfied all the organizers. He himself became Egyptologist No. 1, perhaps only Heinrich Schliemann can compare with him. Plus, Carter has made a decent living in this business. The Egyptian government, which subsidized the scam, did not lose either. Only a small fraction of the "treasures of Tutankhamun" is kept in Cairo, while most of it was sold to the most famous museums in the world for fabulous money, bringing Egypt millions. And if we add to this the crowds of tourists attracted to the banks of the Nile by the desire to see the tomb of Tutankhamun, then Carter's scam may well become an example of a super-profitable investment. The profits that the organizers received were certainly worth going for a few murders for them.
Well, in conclusion, we note that the possible falsification of the excavations of the burial of Tutankhamun is perhaps not the only forgery in the history of archeology. So, the famous French archaeologist Paul Émile Botta, who found Nineveh, once confessed in a private conversation that in every excavation he made, before filling it up, he threw a trinket - a marble elephant, laughing in advance at those who would ever dig out figurine and will seriously consider having found historical value. Of course, the tricks of a Frenchman are a trifle compared to the machinations of an Englishman, nevertheless, it may very well be that, visiting museums and admiring the monuments of ancient civilizations, we admire objects that trace their ancestry from Bott's elephants.