The Beginning
The original story of the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb begins with Howard Carter. He was an archaeologist and wanted to search for Tut's tomb and recruited the funds of Lord Carnarvon to do so. They found the tomb, opened it, and entered to find many treasures and the king himself. This is not the interesting part of the story, though. After the tomb was opened, strange deaths occurred to the people who were present or associated with the tomb opening.
The Birth of the Mummy's Curse
The first of the strange deaths was the death of Howard Carter's pet canary that was eaten by a king cobra. The significance is that king cobras are symbolic to the Egyptian monarchy. This cobra was supposed to represent the king striking his enemies. The second was Lord Carnarvon. He died from a mosquito bite on his cheek after shaving over it, resulting in blood poisoning. The bite was present on his left cheek and after an examination of King Tut's dead body a lesion was found on his left cheek. This discovery was not made until a few months after Carnarvon died, so this could not be proven. The last significant act was not a death but just a strange sequence of events. Sir Bruce Ingham, a friend of Carter's, received a paperweight that was made of a mummified hand with a scarab beetle bracelet on it. On the bracelet was the phrase "Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence."
Although this is not the real birth of the Mummy's Curse, this is the event that brought so much attention to it. The original concept of a mummy seeking revenge through a curse began in London, England. This started when mummies were unwrapped, which inspired writers to write about how the mummies would want and take their revenge.
Although this is not the real birth of the Mummy's Curse, this is the event that brought so much attention to it. The original concept of a mummy seeking revenge through a curse began in London, England. This started when mummies were unwrapped, which inspired writers to write about how the mummies would want and take their revenge.
Tomb Toxins
Howard did not believe in the curse, rejecting this led to more people looking for alternate reasons. An alternate reason discovered that is popular is the idea of Tomb Toxins. It is commonly known that when a pharaoh is put in his tomb there are valuables left inside for him to take with him to the afterlife. These valuables also include different kinds of foods. The idea is that these foods could have attracted insect and mold-like substances. In recent studies laboratories have discovered there are two kinds of potentially life dangerous molds, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. To people with weakened immune systems, these molds can cause allergic reactions from something as simple as congestion to something as serious as bleeding in the lungs. There are also bacterias like Pseudomonas and those in the Staphylococcus genus. There are many things found in tombs that in certain circumstances could be dangerous and in VERY RARE extreme cases, cause death.
Tomb Toxins are another reason for what some believe to be the Mummy's Curse, but most scientists and archaeologists do not believe in this reason because of how unlikely it is for these bacterias to threaten your life. "Given the sanitary conditions of the time in general, and those within Egypt in particular, Lord Carnarvon would likely have been safer in the tomb than outside." - F. DeWolfe Miller, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Tomb Toxins are another reason for what some believe to be the Mummy's Curse, but most scientists and archaeologists do not believe in this reason because of how unlikely it is for these bacterias to threaten your life. "Given the sanitary conditions of the time in general, and those within Egypt in particular, Lord Carnarvon would likely have been safer in the tomb than outside." - F. DeWolfe Miller, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Egyptology and Popular Culture
"Egyptology investigates the range of ancient Egyptian culture, including the people, language, literature, history, religion, art, economics and architecture. Egyptology is basically a history"
Egyptology is just another form of research on a civilization that lived before us. Why is it so much popular than other ancient civilizations then? Egyptology has made an impact on popular culture because of every aspect of egyptian culture. It started with the unwrapping of mummies, which gave them a place in the horror genre that they are now in today. Even when we have studied Egypt for so long the Egyptians are still so mysterious.
Popular culture was greatly influenced by King Tut. There have been multiple movies made about the curse including the well known title The Mummy. These movies are all different with the same plot line of a pharaoh's being disturbed and the founders fearing and fighting for their lives, which is like the exaggerated version of King Tut's "Curse".
Egyptology is just another form of research on a civilization that lived before us. Why is it so much popular than other ancient civilizations then? Egyptology has made an impact on popular culture because of every aspect of egyptian culture. It started with the unwrapping of mummies, which gave them a place in the horror genre that they are now in today. Even when we have studied Egypt for so long the Egyptians are still so mysterious.
Popular culture was greatly influenced by King Tut. There have been multiple movies made about the curse including the well known title The Mummy. These movies are all different with the same plot line of a pharaoh's being disturbed and the founders fearing and fighting for their lives, which is like the exaggerated version of King Tut's "Curse".
Society has become infinitely amazed by this ancient culture. These movies are about extreme tomb raids and discoveries, but are still just fictional. There are also people who have made buildings that have Egyptian culture in the design as further evidence that egyptology has influenced popular culture. The commonalities between Egyptian architecture and buildings one 1 and 4 are the pillars. They both have the base, shaft, capital and acabus as shown in the description in the slideshow below. The second picture's Egyptian influence is obvious since it is a pyramid. The third picture's Egyptian influence is the symbol at the top of the pillars on the header. The symbol is like an Americanized version of the sacred Scarab Beetle.
Gosford Glyphs
In Kariong, Australia there were a series of "Hieroglyphics" found in a park on the east coast on the east coast of the island. Some tried to prove that these glyphs actually existed and were authentic Egyptian. However, an Egyptologist, Professor Ockinga, from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, debunked them. A smaller group of these hieroglyphics were found by a small group. The group leader, Steven Strong, gives multiple reasons for how these hieroglyphics are not authentic. One reason is that the lines on the rock are straight, which means they were carved. Professor Ockinga continues to give reasons of why these are fake. Ockinga states that the way the Gosford glyphs were cut is more disorganized than how the Egyptians produced them. The people who carved these signs also combined hieroglyphs from different time periods. "That's a chronological discrepancy." Ockinga also goes into Australian history and explains how during World War I there were Australian soldiers stationed in Egypt. This is relevant because there were soldiers who had carved pictures of pyramids and sphinxes in the rocks at different parks. "it is likely the engravings were made in the 1920s, when there was a widespread interest in ancient Egypt after the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun."
-Popular Culture.
-Popular Culture.
Celebrities and Pharaohs
This is maybe one of the dumbest videos I have ever seen. It seems like it was made by a three year old. But it is still a representation of how Egyptology is influencing popular culture.