On November 4, 1922, the top steps of King Tut’s tomb were found in the Valley of Kings, which is in Egypt for those of you who are geographically disinclined.  Tut, also affectionately known as Tutankhamun, was the boy king who had been lying there peacefully dead since 1323 BCE, having died at the young are of 18, give or take.  Tut, along with his tomb, was discovered by British archeologist Howard Carter, who was financed by George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, or simply Lord Carnavon.  He was British, too.

 

What they found was a pristine tomb.  A tomb that had yet to be looted.  They would get to be the first.   And they hit the jackpot.  There were over 5,000 pieces of treasure in the compact tomb, including Tut’s sold gold burial mask – you’ve seen it – and his solid gold tomb weighing in at 242 pounds.  There were weapons, and chariots, and furniture, and all sorts of stuff.  If you just melted down all that gold, at today’s prices it would be worth $17.5 million, before taxes.  Really, though, there is no way you could set a value on all that stuff.  You can insure it though, for one billion dollars.  And that’s probably low. 

 

Though the vast majority of what Carter found remained in Egypt, it is likely that he kept some of it for himself, albeit illegally.  Egyptian antiquities laws, along with any applicable curses, require all stuff found in Egypt stays in Egypt.  Aside from bragging rights, Carter did receive a cut from door when the loot was put on exhibition.  Carnarvon, on the other hand, got considerably less than squat.  He received a small profit from the media rights, not nearly enough to cover his expenses.  And he got a mosquito bite on his neck, which he accidently cut while shaving, which got infected, which killed him.  In all fairness, Carnarvon wasn’t in great health to begin with.  An automobile accident left him prone to frequent lung infections and a weak immune system. 

 

Or it could’ve been the Mummy’s Curse!  After all, Carnarvon had been present when the tomb was opened.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, famous from his Sherlock Holmes stories, speculated to the press that Carnarvon’s death had been caused by supernatural forces.  That psychic guardian spirits had been released.  And the media loved it.  This wasn’t Doyle’s first foray into evil mummies coming to life.  In fact, he’s credited with introducing the entire genre to popular fiction, that of evil mummies seeking revenge on those who violated their tombs, first in 1892 in his short story “Lot No. 249,” and again in 1890 in “The Ring of Thoth.”  The classic 1932 movie The Mummy, which stars Boris Karloff, doesn’t credit Doyle in the least.  But it does draw directly on the media hype that Doyle created when Lord Carnarvon died. 

 

Incidentally, of the 26 people who were present when the tomb was opened, only three died relatively soon afterwards.  Aside from Carnarvon, Sir Archibald Douglas-Reid died in 1924.  He was the guy who x-rayed the mummy, and he had more than likely radiated himself long before that.  And a guy named A.C. Mace died in 1928 from a long-term respiratory illness.  Howard Carter, the main guy, died in 1939 at the age of 64 from Hodgkin’s disease, 17 years after opening Tut’s tomb. 

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