Howard Carter’s view of the so called curse of Tutankhamun was summed up by him in one word, ‘Tommyrot’.
It was something man made and encouraged by local Egyptians whose heritage was being removed by foreigners all around them, coupled with daft stories fuelled by journalists fighting for a good headline.
After 1922 there were several deaths of folk caught up in the Tutankhamun tale, the curse was introduced and hysteria and human playfulness set it to work.
Lord Carnarvon’s death (from throat cancer) was inevitable, it was inconvenient and had to be staged managed.
Some of the other demises attributed to the curse were exaggerated odd-ball, they were not well enough explained or facts were taken liberty with, but nothing of this was owing to any curse from the ancients. Causes of death are often secret or bizarre and complicated by circumstances of fate and madness or even medical incompetence.
Many of those folk who feature in the King Tut story were affected by family secrets, bad habits, poor health and incautious living. The hot climate of Egypt affected many of them more so than any curse acting to strike them down dead.
Howard Carter lived and ate, slept and worked constantly in the tombs in Egypt for many years, he was not afraid or needed to be afraid of curses, he was more concerned with avoiding disease and taking sufficient respite and drinking enough whisky to blot out a hard day’s graft and ease his fragile body frame!
Moreover Carter did not subscribe to the stories ( fostered even by some academics) about so called warning signs being present for him and Carnarvon or threats being given. Carter deemed these the work of troublemakers.
There are no warnings in old writing texts that Carter considered wary, or dangerous, or fearsome other than those from and by errant priests to warn off grave robbers, thieves and the gullible. There was certainly no threatening sign of death will come etc to those who disturb the tomb. Nothing like this was found in or above the tomb or evidence of intervention by the gods, the crazy things cited were only of acts that were the work of human hands.
The cobra that consumed Carter’s canary, the lights going out in Cairo as Carnarvon died, a dog howling and perishing at the same moment at Highclere Castle. These are all fictions or have scanty facts dressed up as true. All a charade, the work of hacks planting and keeping going a story, that began with the Cairo correspondent of Reuters News Agency making world news with the so called insect bite affecting Carnarvon rather than revealing the true story of Carnarvon being in extremis with a terminal illness.
Ploys by news agencies like Reuters were to deflect attention away from the real crisis of Carnarvon being doomed, especially with so much money at stake with media deals etc All this chaos and crisis caused Almina’s daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert ( acting as the Earl's nurse) to panic, Carter was at loggerheads with the Carnarvons and turned his back on his patron, and Almina ( Carnarvon's wife) rushed to her husband’s bedside to aid his passage into peace and oblivion.
All that said Lord Carnarvon was superstitious by nature and had a keen perception of all the ancient myths, however his vaulting ambition to make money from the tomb overcame his fears.
Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun's lives were all cursed, they were affected personally and across their overlapping lives on more down to earth factors, on account of bad genes, inbreeding and trauma during their development years. This blighted them and made them the people that they were, three dysfunctional adults.
But all that said no one can take away the glory of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon being celebrated this year, 100 years after 1922 for discovering the great tomb of Tutankhamun.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE AUTHOR WILLIAM CROSS
email williecross@aol.com
NB William Cross's latest book written for the centenary of 2022 is entitled "Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons" and challenges many of the landmark events in the story of the discovery of Tutankhamun.
From William Cross, FSA Scot
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