Читать книгу World History For Dummies - Peter Haugen - Страница 32

Perhaps nobody devoted quite so much thought and energy to death and the afterlife as the ancient Egyptians. After burying their dead with great care and ceremony since perhaps 4000 BC (Chapter 4 has more on ancient Egypt), the Egyptians began artfully mummifying their pharaohs sometime before the 24th century BC.

By 2300 BC, the practice had spread beyond royalty. Any Egyptian who could afford it was dried and fortified for the trip into the afterlife. The mummy was buried with possessions and even servants for use in the next world.

Egyptian mummies differ from many others in that researchers can figure out exactly who some of these people were in life. King Tutankhamen’s identity is intact thanks to ancient Egyptian pictorial writings called hieroglyphics. Again, writing gives us actual history. British Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered fabulously preserved artifacts in Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. The discovery made Tutankhamen the most famous pharaoh in our time, although he may not have been that in his own time. Tut took the throne in 1361 BC at about age 9 and reigned for only 9 years.

Carter first gazed by candlelight into the wonders of that tomb, unseen for more than 3,300 years. That moment has been held up ever since as the ideal archaeological breakthrough — completely unlike most great discoveries, which are scratched out of the ancient dust and painstakingly pieced together.

Carter said that he stood in front of the tomb for a long time, allowing his eyes to adjust to the gloom. His patron and partner, George Herbert, Earl of Carnarvon, stood behind him in the dark, unable to stand the suspense. “Do you see anything?” asked Carnarvon breathlessly. “Yes,” replied Carter in a hushed tone. “Wonderful things.”

The discovery made all the papers, and so did Carnarvon’s untimely death. The earl died of an infected mosquito bite a few months after he helped Carter find the tomb. Naturally, some people blamed his death on an ancient curse against anyone who disturbed the boy king’s eternal rest. (Grave robbers had been the scourge of Egyptian royalty.)

The notion of Tutankhamen’s curse may have disappeared if it weren’t for a 1932 horror movie called The Mummy, which is wrong on every point of archaeology and Egyptian religion but features a compellingly compelling performance by Boris Karloff in the title role. The Mummy was successful enough that many remakes and variations followed.