King Tut's Tomb

 

I've always been pretty fascinated with ancient Egyptian history. It is a very interesting field that deals with tombs, rocks, hieroglyphics, sand, pyramids, pharaohs, and mummies.

One of these Pharoahs, which in ancient Egypt meant a "king/god person", was King Tuhantamun. Which literally translates to: King Tut.

The tomb of King Tut, was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, who apparently spent several years digging around the Valley of the Kings thinking, “There has GOT to be one more rich dead guy left around here somewhere.” And against all odds, there was. 

This was a major archaeological discovery because most Egyptian tombs had already been looted centuries earlier by grave robbers, corrupt officials, souvenir hunters, and probably somebody’s cousin named “Neferuthumose the Sketchy” or whatever. But King Tut’s tomb survived pretty much intact because it was buried under debris and hidden so well that for over 3,000 years nobody noticed there was an entire pharaoh underneath what looked like a dirt parking lot. 

Ironically, Tutankhamun himself was not considered a particularly important pharaoh. He ruled briefly, died young, and spent much of his reign basically trying to clean up the theological yard sale left behind by his father, Akhenaten, who had attempted to replace Egypt’s entire religion with what was essentially sun worship. Not like people heading to the beach. No, he believed, the disc of the sun was an actual god. (Not surprisingly it did not catch on.) 

Anyway, because Tut died unexpectedly at around age 18 or 19, the Egyptians apparently had to rush his burial. His tomb was smaller than those of other pharaohs and stuffed floor-to-ceiling with over 5,000 objects including gold coffins, jewelry, chariots, statues, furniture, clothing, ceremonial items, and enough decorative material to make a Las Vegas casino manager whisper, “Maybe we could tone it down a little.” 

The most famous item was Tut’s golden funerary mask, which became one of the best-known artifacts in history and also permanently established the ancient Egyptian principle that if you are going to be dead for 3,000 years, you should at least accessorize properly. 

Then came the “Curse of the Pharaohs,” which started after Carter’s financial backer, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, died shortly after the tomb was opened. This caused newspapers worldwide to lose their minds and suggest that ancient Egyptian spirits were murdering people from beyond the grave. It also gave rise to several Mummy movie franchises which has made a lot of money in Hollywood. In reality, the curse mostly resulted in what today would be called “very aggressive media marketing.” 

Meanwhile Carter and his team spent YEARS cataloging everything because ancient Egyptians apparently believed that when you die you will need all the same things you needed in life, including furniture, sandals, board games, walking sticks, snacks, tiny boats, jewelry, ceremonial daggers, and approximately sixteen metric tons of golden trinkets. Archaeologists opened boxes only to discover more boxes inside, which is proof that even in 1323 BC people already understood the core principle of Amazon-style shipping.

Today most of the treasures are housed in museums in Egypt, while Tut himself remains in the tomb, where millions of tourists shuffle past every year whispering things like, “Wow,” and, “I can’t believe this survived,” and, “Honey, we do NOT need another plastic sphinx from the gift shop.”