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Who were Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon?

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Presentation on theme: "Who were Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon?"— Presentation transcript:

1 Who were Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon?
In 1907, Howard Carter, a British archaeologist was introduced to Lord Carnarvon, a wealthy Englishman who agreed to supply the money necessary for Carter to go to Egypt and search for the tomb of a little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamen, whose existence Carter had discovered. n was a very wealthy Englishman who paid Howard Carter to search for the tomb of King Tut in Egypt. Howard Carter searched for the tomb for five years. Their find became the most famous archaeological discovery of all time. On November 22, 1922 Howard Carter and his crew found Tutankhamen’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings---- after a water-boy sat down for lunch and ran his hand along the sand, feeling a hard step under the sand. On November 26th, Lord Carnarvon watched as Carter made a hole in the door. Carter leaned in, holding a candle to take a look. Behind him Lord Carnarvon asked, “Can you see anything?” Carter’s reply was, “Yes. Many beautiful things!” After ten years of fruitless searching, Lord Carnarvon was becoming unhappy with the poor results of Carter’s excavations, so in 1922 he told Carter he would only give him one more year of funding (money) to find the tomb.

2 Who was King Tut anyway? Tutankhamen was an Egyptian pharaoh who is more famous for his death than for his life because his tomb was completely ‘intact’ and gave us a clear idea of the details that went into burying a pharaoh. Tut began his reign when he was just 9 years old and died approximately 9 years later at the age of 18. He is believed by many historians to be the son of Akhenaten. Advisors of the young boy convinced him to change Egypt’s religion back to their previous monotheistic beliefs. Very few written documents on Tut survive and not very much is known of his life because he only reigned for a short time. For a long time experts were unsure as to the cause of Tut’s death. Recent forensic evidence suggests that Tut died because of an infection caused by a broken leg. Tut is most famous because his spectacular tomb was discovered filled with all his personal treasures, by Howard Carter on November 22, 1922.

3 Here are some of those treasures! Nice, aren’t they?

4 The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb; Fact or Fiction?
This image is of the unbroken seal leading into Tutankhamen’s tomb. At the time of its discovery, it had remained untouched for 3,245 years.

5 Do you believe in curses?
WHAT ARE SOME CURSES YOUR ARE AWARE OF?

6 Breaking the Seal on the Tomb
These words were supposedly written across the seal of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt when this tomb was opened for the first time in over 3,000 years by the English Egyptologist Howard Carter. When it was opened, newspapers around the world announced the discovery and warned people of the curse……. “Death Shall Come on Swift Wings to He Who Disturbs the Peace of the King.” If you were an archaeologist, would you enter? Why or why not?

7 Some Strange Happenings….
Lord Carnarvon and archaeologist Howard Carter entered the Tut's burial chamber on February 17, On or about March 6, Lord Carnarvon was bitten by a mosquito on his cheek and became ill. The mosquito bite became infected, he contracted pneumonia and blood poisoning, and on April 5, he died. He was only 56 years old. The bite was in the same spot on his cheek as a scar found on the mummy of Tut. At the same time Carnarvon died, all the electricity in Cairo went off. In fact, the lights in the hospital went off almost to the second when he died. At the same hour Carnarvon died, Carnarvon’s pet terrier, Susie, howled and dropped over, dead. Exaggeration? On the same day that the entrance to the tomb was laid open, Carter’s pet canary was eaten by a cobra. Cobras are and were very rare in Egypt and especially so in winter. In ancient times they were regarded as the symbol of royalty. Coincidence? Most of the Egyptian workers who were present when the tomb was opened died within a year. Within 10 years 22 different people, either directly associated with the excavation or connected to those associated with the excavation had died.

8 So What Do You Think? There have been many claims that all of these unusual circumstances are evidence that a curse was in fact placed on Tut’s tomb to be given to anyone who disturbed the king’s restful afterlife. Even with all these unusual happenings, there has never been any proof in photos of a curse written anywhere on the door of Tut’s tomb or it’s chamber walls, nor did Howard Carter or Lord Carnarvon speak of any curse. Over the years, the stories may have changed and become exaggerated, as is often the case in history. What do you think? Do you believe the stories and do they seem credible enough to convince you that there must have been a curse, or do you think this is typical of what happens when stories get exchanged and spread over the course of many years?


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