Pharaoh Tutankhamen‘s tomb was opened 100 years ago on this day, February 16, in 1923 by a team led by Howard Carter. The Boy King, 1341 BCE – 1323 BCE, ruled from age nine to nineteen and died apparently suddenly, but was carefully entombed with riches and a sarcophagus with a death mask pictured here.
Other Egyptian royals’ tombs had been raided over the millennia, leaving Tut’s as one of the first to be discovered still preserved, with its artifacts now in the Cairo Egyptian Museum. Their stunning beauty has been documented a number of times in National Geographic articles, and the cause of his death has been studied and speculated over since its discovery. Scans seem to indicate he may have had foot disease or abnormalities, supported perhaps by the presence of canes among the items found in the tomb. One suggestion has been that he was mauled in a hippopotamus hunt, due to rib damage and the history of royals hunting the species.
There is persistent speculation that any who disturbed the tomb were cursed. Howard Carter and his patron, Lord Carnarvon, both died within four months of the opening. In all ten members of the expedition died within the following ten years.
Carter and others have speculated that Tut’s tomb is actually an antechamber to another, more important royal, perhaps even that of Queen Nefertiti. Overshadowing all that, at least in pop culture, has been the hit song and comedy routine by Steve Martin, a signature act he performed in the late 1970s. Not to be outdone, the Bangles recorded their hit, Walk Like an Egyptian.
A century is a long time to hold the attention of the public, much longer than Tutankhamen lived. In that sense he lives on today through his memory and in the mysteries that still surround him.
