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StJohn · 2919 days ago · link · · parent · post: TIH: November 26, 1922- Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years
Happy Tutankhamun Day! I had no idea it was November 26. About this time last year I read a fantastic book about the origin of mummy myths, and it laid the blame for the mythology surrounding Tutankhamun's tomb squarely at Lord Carnarvon's feet. It wasn't that he died soon after the tomb was opened (though he did). It was that he'd struck up an exclusive coverage deal with one newspaper. That meant all the rest of the world's media were desperate for material, so when Carnarvon kicked the bucket they all ran the curse story because they had nothing else to print.