On November 4, 1922, British artist and archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the first traces of a previously unknown tomb during excavations in Egypt. This is how the brightest archaeological discovery of the 20th century was made - the tomb of Tutankhamun. She gave scientists the richest material for study, and popular culture - a vivid legend about the curse of the pharaoh. We recall the history of the discovery and subsequent research of the tomb.
Age of Egyptomania
In the IV century AD, Theodosius I, the last emperor of the united Roman Empire, ordered the closure of all pagan temples in the country. This led to the fact that in Egypt - at that time the Roman province - the hieroglyphic writing finally died out. From the 5th century, the last inscription in Egyptian cursive has come down to us. Since then, no one has remained who could read or write in ancient Egyptian. Thus ended the incredibly long - more than four thousand years - history of the civilization of Ancient Egypt. It was not remembered for several centuries, until in 1801 Napoleon returned to France from the Egyptian campaign, in which scientists also participated. They brought with them a large number of historical artifacts, which were sent to storage at the Institute of Egypt, created shortly before. The real Egyptomania began:Europe discovered a huge ancient civilization - with pyramids, sphinxes and pharaohs. Explorers, travelers, artists and adventurers flocked to Egypt.
In 1822, orientalist François Champollion, using bilingual Greek-Egyptian inscriptions, deciphered the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on the famous Rosetta stone, becoming the founder of Egyptology as a separate field of scientific knowledge. The international resonance from this event gave rise to a neo-Egyptian style in architecture and even reached Russia, as evidenced by the Egyptian bridge in St. Petersburg and the Tsarskoye Selo Egyptian gate, decorated with hieroglyphs.
Egyptian gate at the entrance to Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin). Photo: Yuri Belinsky / TASS
Since England, Germany and France continued political rivalry for the redistribution of the colonies, among which was Egypt, they were interested in studying it. Collecting Egyptian antiquities has become fashionable among the elite. Acquaintance with one of these collections prompted Howard Carter to go to Egypt.
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There
Howard Carter was born in England and was the youngest of eight children. In adulthood, according to historians, he was "a capricious, pensive, stubborn, undiplomatic person with several close friends."
His father Samuel Carter was a talented portrait painter, and Howard inherited this talent, which was later useful to him in archaeological work. One of Carter Sr.'s clients was Lord William Armhurst, who possessed a large collection of Egyptian antiquities. Having become acquainted with this collection, Howard traveled to Egypt in 1891 to work as an artist and photographer on archaeological expeditions.
Carter spent several seasons on expeditions, working at the ancient residence of Pharaoh Akhenaten and the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Soon he was appointed chief inspector for antiquities in Upper Egypt. In this position, he participated in various activities for the excavation and conservation of historical monuments, including the place that made him famous - the Valley of the Kings. He lost his post after a scuffle between rowdy French tourists and Egyptian sentries guarding the monuments. Carter sided with the Egyptians (or even the monuments).
For the next several years he worked again as an artist, until in 1909 he met another wealthy British antiquity lover, Lord Carnarvon. Tom managed to get permission for a large-scale excavation in the Valley of the Kings, and after a delay caused by the First World War, Carter began work.
The excavations continued for several years, but they were completely fruitless. Lord Carnarvon lost his patience and was about to close the project, but the stubborn Carter insisted on one more last effort. It was this that was crowned with success when, finally, on November 4, 1922, in the desert cliffs of Deir el-Bahri, an Egyptian water boy hired by Carter noticed a step carved into the rock. The next day, workers cleared the entrance to the tomb, which was given the number KV62. She was at the entrance to the tomb of another pharaoh - Ramses VI. His tomb was "younger", and, apparently, during its construction, the entrance to the "older" tomb was covered.
Treasure and the curse of the mummy
On November 26, Carter, along with Carnarvon, who arrived from England and his daughter Evelyn Girbert, entered the tomb and became the first living people to step on the stone slabs of the pharaoh's tomb.
“As my eyes adjusted to the lighting, the details of the room slowly emerged through the haze. Strange animals, statues and gold - everywhere there is a reflection of gold,”the researcher later recalled.
The discovery of the tomb was a huge breakthrough due to the fact that it remained almost intact. It contained jewelry, seals with the name of Tutankhamun, wreaths of flowers, skeins of linen cloth, a special substance for mummification, painted vases and gilded funerary masks, including the most famous one - about 5,000 items in total. The main find, of course, was a turquoise-encrusted sarcophagus made of pure gold with the mummified body of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Howard Carter and the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. Photo: Harry Burton
The journalists entered the tomb a week after the researchers. An endless stream of tourists from all over the world flowed there, which began to interfere with the excavations. In the end, Carnarvon, wanting to improve his financial affairs, sold exclusive rights to coverage of the excavation to The Times for £ 5,000 and 75% of the proceeds from the sale of articles worldwide. Journalists from other publications were furious, but Carter's team breathed more freely - the flow of journalists into the tomb decreased.
In April 1923, less than six months after the opening of the tomb, Lord Carnarvon died suddenly from blood poisoning and pneumonia, apparently caused by the bite of an infected mosquito in Cairo. Shortly before this, the popular novelist Marie Corelli sent a letter to the editorial office of New York World, warning of the dire consequences for anyone who disturbed the peace of Tutankhamun's tomb. Why she did this is unclear. Corelli died a year later without explaining anything to anyone. Nevertheless, the news of the "curse of Tutankhamun" was picked up by the press. Journalists attributed the early and unnatural death from the curse to three dozen people who had anything to do with the tomb. An inscription wandered through the pages of the newspapers, supposedly carved on the wall of the tomb: "Those who enter this sacred tomb will soon be visited by the wings of death." Of coursefictional.
An unopened seal on the doors to the tomb of Tutankhamun. Photo: Harry Burton
In 2002, epidemiologist Mark Nelson of Monash University in Australia examined historical evidence and traced the fate of Europeans whom Carter referred to as members of the Egyptian expedition that found Tutankhamun's tomb. It turned out that only 25 people could have been exposed to the malign influence of the mummy, since they were present at key work in the tomb: the opening of the inner sanctuary, the opening of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, the opening of three golden coffins embedded in it and the study of the pharaoh's mummy. The average age of death for this group turned out to be 70 years - while after the opening of the tomb they lived, again on average for the group, about 21 more years. Those who also collaborated with Carter during the autopsy of the tomb, but were not present at the autopsy even once (11 people),lived about five years longer … but were also five years younger on average. Thus, Nelson concluded, none of the members of Carter's archaeological team suffered a terrible and sudden death and there could be no question of any curse of the pharaoh. True, there were Egyptians in the detachment, but it was not possible to trace their fate and life expectancy. In any case, it was lower than that of the Europeans, and Nelson did not include them in the study, which he published in the British Medical Journal. In any case, it was lower than that of the Europeans, and Nelson did not include them in the study, which he published in the British Medical Journal. In any case, it was lower than that of the Europeans, and Nelson did not include them in the study, which he published in the British Medical Journal.
Thus, the curse of the mummy turned out to be nothing more than a "media hype". The sinister image of the avenging mummy, nevertheless, became so popular with the public that it became a part of world pop culture, and - along with Dracula and Frankenstein - the hero of numerous books, films, games and comics. The film "The Mummy" with Boris Karloff has become a classic of world cinema.
Whats up?
Following the opening of the tomb, the period of its study began. Having made Howard Carter a world famous, the pharaoh of the XVIII dynasty of the New Kingdom Tutankhamun, or, as he is called in English-language literature, Tut, himself became one of the most famous kings of Ancient Egypt. But scientists did not manage to learn much about his life. From the inscription on the tomb it is known that he was the son of the eccentric Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who amazed both his contemporaries and archaeologists by the fact that - 1300 years before Christianity! - proclaimed in the pagan state the monotheistic cult of the single sun god Aton and took the name Akhenaten in his honor. The cult, however, died out with the death of the ruler. Akhenaten's wife Nefertiti, apparently, was not the mother of Tutankhamun. According to the ancient tradition of the rulers of Ancient Egypt, he himself was married to the daughter of Akhenaten, that is, to his half-sister.
Tutankhamun ascended the throne in 1343 BC. at the age of 9-10 years. His internal political deeds are known from the inscription on the so-called Restoration Stele. It follows from it that Tutankhamun refused to continue his father's "monotheistic revolution" and began to restore the sanctuaries of the ancient gods, headed by Amun. He also left his father's residence - Amarna, and she fell into desolation.
The young pharaoh, obviously, led quite successful military campaigns abroad - in Nubia and Syria. At least in the tomb of his commander Horemheb there are inscriptions of thanks for his good service.
Painting ~ 1327 BC, depicting Tutankhamen defeating his enemies. Photo: Yann Forget
In the second half of the 20th century, the tomb did not give scientists any serious new knowledge, since it was impossible to access it when it was returned to the Valley of the Kings after exhibitions. Finally, in 2007-2009, a team of scientists led by Doctor of Archeology and ex-Minister of Antiquities of Egypt Zaha Hawassa conducted a comprehensive anthropological, genetic and radiological study of the mummies of the pharaoh and his relatives.
The study showed that Tutankhamun lived poorly, but not for long. He had a cleft palate (congenital non-closure of the hard palate and upper jaw), clubfoot, Kohler's disease (deformities and necrosis of tissues caused by impaired blood supply to individual bones of the foot). Before his death, he apparently suffered a hip fracture that never healed. In addition, the causative agent of malaria was found in the tissues of the pharaoh's brain. Tutankhamun suffered from malarial encephalitis, and complications caused by the disease, apparently, became the cause of his death.
At the same time, studies did not confirm the presence of endocrine system diseases and Marfan syndrome in the pharaoh, due to which the limbs and fingers are disproportionately lengthened, although this was also suspected. Numerous images and reliefs of his father, Akhenaten, demonstrate his clearly feminine figure and probable gynecomastia. Scientists assumed that these are hereditary features, and they could appear in the son, but research has not confirmed this. Scanning the mummy with a tomograph allowed scientists to assume that Tut died at the age of about 19 years.
Nicholas Reeves concluded that the bizarre depictions of Akhenaten are simply a tribute to the tradition of portraying the pharaohs as different from their subjects in order to emphasize their divine status.
Eleven of his relatives were buried in the tomb together with Tutankhamun, including his sister-wife Ankhesenamun and six more ancestors. However, among them there was not the most obvious and most interesting mummy - the wife of King Akhenaten, the beautiful Nefertiti.
Is Nefertiti here too?
From 1998 to 2002, Nicholas Reeves, who today can be considered one of the most obsessed explorers of the tomb, continued to work there. He drew attention to the fact that the tomb of Tutankhamun is much smaller than the tombs of other pharaohs, which means that it could have been built for the queen. Perhaps the pharaoh got there only because of his sudden death and the lack of a more suitable place for burial. Then the queen herself, obviously, should be lying somewhere nearby. Reeves shared this assumption with the ex-Minister of Antiquities of Egypt Mamduh al-Damati and received permission to conduct GPR studies of the tomb.
In 2000, radar showed that 14 meters outside the walls of Tutankhamun's burial chamber, there was indeed a cavity, as well as, probably, objects made of bone, wood and metal. Reeves gave this cavity the name KV63, thus ranking it as part of the complex of the tomb (the burial chamber, for example, is called KV62). Since then, there has been an ongoing debate between archaeologists and the Egyptian authorities about whether there really is another burial chamber in the thickness of the rock, whether there is something worthwhile in it, and whether excavations should begin.
In the meantime, it is strictly forbidden to violate the integrity of the burial, therefore, for now, especially impatient researchers are forced to resort to "secondary sources." For example, study copies of the tomb. Fortunately, some of them are very, very accurate: for example, the same Reeves was intently examining a full-sized replica of the tomb, created as part of a philanthropic project in 2014. Its creators made a "3D-impression" of the KV62, scanning the room with a laser. After examining the findings, Reeves could see traces of two previously unknown doorways behind the wall ornaments. They, in his opinion, are nothing more than the entrances to other rooms of the tomb, and it is there that Nefertiti's archaeologists are waiting for a visit.
Reeves outlined his thoughts on this in a 2015 article. In it, he also gave images of what the doorway found behind the wall might look like, and also suggested that some of the drawings on the walls of the tomb depict Akhenaten's wife.
Other researchers also joined in the study of the tomb, in particular the Japanese radar scanning specialist Hirokattsu Watanabe. He investigated the western wall of the main tomb and reported that there was a 90% chance of something there. But whether there is exactly Nefertiti's sarcophagus remains a mystery, and the scientific community continued to remain skeptical about this idea. Sergei Ivanov, director of the Center for Egyptological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, then suggested that the "secret room" is actually just an unfinished tomb, the entrance to which was laid as unnecessary. His colleagues also raised doubts about Watanabe's methods - the researcher was criticized for using outdated radar scanning methods and their interpretation.
Since then, a story about a cavity in the tomb of Tutankhamun and the possible finding of Nefertiti there has surfaced with enviable regularity in the media, but there is no fresh news from the tomb. Scholars and Egyptian officials are skeptical of Reeves' ideas. Breaking open the walls in the burial room is still prohibited.
