On the morning of November 6, 1922, Howard Carter sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon, the patron who financed his excavations in the Valley of the Kings: “At last I have made a marvelous discovery, a magnificent tomb with intact seals; covered until arrival; congratulations”. Stop. End.
The English aristocrat lacked hours to embark for Egypt and sixteen days later he arrived with his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert. The rest of the story we already know. On the 26th, the archaeologist opened “a minuscule gap in the upper left corner,” he recounted in his own diary.
“I was stunned with surprise, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to bear the uncertainty any longer, asked anxiously: ‘Can you see anything?’ all I could do was say: ‘Yes, wonderful things.’ Carter did not imagine that his discovery would not only arouse Egyptomania worldwide, but also the curse of Tutankhamen’s mummy.
If last November the centenary of the discovery was celebrated, now the birth of the black legend is commemorated with a death, that of Lord Carnarvon, which occurred on April 5, 1923. The first and most significant of up to thirty deaths that in their day was related to the curse of the poor Pharaoh, unjustly accused.
The climate that prevailed in Europe, just after the Great War and a devastating flu epidemic, with those roaring 20s and the rise of spiritualism, was conducive to the appearance of mystery stories and adventures with paranormal touches. The world needed distraction.
The novelist Marie Corelli was in charge of writing the first words, recalling old curses found in other tombs, such as the famous phrase: “Death will spread its wings over anyone who dares to enter the sealed tomb of a pharaoh.” In Tutankhamun’s there were only four magical bricks with protective inscriptions. Another pen, that of Arthur Conan Doyle, added to writing pages and pages of supposed pharaonic curse.
In fact, as is well known, the 5th Duke of Carnarvon, in failing health due to a car accident, died of septicemia caused by an infected insect bite.
Recently, the microbiologist Raúl Rivas has pointed out another possible cause not only for his death but also for others that occurred that same year, such as that of Carnarvon’s brother, Aubrey, or that of the railroad magnate George Jay Gould. It would be a fungal infection by inhaling spores of the Aspergillus fungus, which can survive for millennia and cause fatal pulmonary aspergillosis.
Lord Carnarvon was buried in his impressive castle in Highclere, Hampshire, where Downton Abbey was filmed and where the current duke still resides. And there remains his grave. The curse, at least, has spared him eternal rest.
