The real curse of the pharaohs – part 10

Howard Carter is not very surprised at the demonstration of hostility by a hundred or so Arabs, at Tutankhamun’s tomb.  The speech that has just been addressed to him is too perfect to be spontaneous.  He knows that the religious sects are working to create a climate of fear around his discovery.  And not only by invectives:  tourists en route for the Valley of the Kings have been attacked several times by bands of bandits – but, are they really bandits? – who have robbed and wounded them;  it is said that one of them is dead.  Carter knows that the Egyptian authorities are not doing very much to prevent these incidents.  He is even asking himself if they aren’t encouraging them discretely.  The Cairo Government would not be annoyed to see the searchers pack their bags.  The Egyptian newspapers, imitated by certain European newspapers, openly accuse Lord Carnavon of being a mercenary man, who is only thinking about getting his money back, money that he has spent on the digs, and even to make a profit, by selling Tutankhamun’s treasure to the highest bidding museums or individuals.

Two days later, when he reads the first newspaper reports consecrated to the Visit of the Tomb, Carter has a new cause for disgruntlement.  In front of the door that is soon going to be opened, he had deciphered, for the journalists, an inscription which he had already translated for himself, considering it a simple curiosity, to which no particular importance should be given, for it figures at the entrance to numerous pharaonic necropolises.  He had read in a detached voice:

“Death will touch with its wings whomever disturbs the pharaoh.”

The journalists did not miss underlining the prediction and, naturally, connected it to the menaces proffered by the chief of the demonstrators who had stoned them.  Some ironise, others believe or pretend to believe.  In any case, they talk about the “curse” and Carter could have done without this supplementary publicity.

***

Lord Carnavon

Lord Carnavon is in no better humour than his assistant when he returns from England, on 7 February, in the company of his daughter.  He wants to forbid the Egyptian public servant entry to the tomb, and finally decides to proceed to the piercing of the last door in secret, alone with Carter and a few workers.  Carter tries to reason with him:  an official ceremony is planned for 18 February, in the presence of numerous guests, including the Queen of the Belgians and the Egyptian authorities.  If the tomb is opened without them, there is going to be a scandal…  Carnavon refuses to listen.  Since he is not going to be allowed to freely dispose of the treasure, he at least wants the privilege and the pleasure of giving the first blow of the pick!  Some, among those who believe in the curse of the pharaohs, will later see in this stubbornness, the fatal mark of destiny.

In the middle of the day, under a burning sun which is sure to keep away any prying eyes, Carnavon and Carter slip into the tomb, with precautions worthy of thieves.  At 1 : 50 p.m., Carnavon raises his pick.  Ten minutes later, the ray of the electric lamp, shone into the hole by Carter, is reflected from a yellowish surface, which glows feebily.  A wall of gold!  Under the flow of emotion, Carnavon recovers his cool head.  He tells Carter:

“That’s enough.  I simply wanted to be sure that we would not be ridiculous in front of the official guests.  The real tomb is there.  We shall wait for the ceremony to widen the breach.”

***

And here is the great day.  Sunday, 18 February 1923.  The beginning of the ceremony has been fixed at 8 o’clock in the morning, to avoid the heat.  The entrance to the tomb, at the top of the sixteen steps, is decorated with British and Egyptian flags.  On either side of the staircase, two rows of mounted guards greet the guests as they alight from their cars.  Lord Allenby, High Commissioner of Great Britain, arrives first, so as not to miss the Dowager Sultana of Egypt, who alights from her Rolls Royce, the Ambassadors of France and Belgium, several Egyptian Ministers and, all in white – white tailored suit, white fox stole – Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth, Lord Carnavon’s protectrice, on the arm of her son, Prince Leopold.

The guests – around twenty – having grouped themselves in the left-hand side of the antechamber, Carter, Carnavon, Callender and an American archaeologist, Arthur Mace, who is part of Carter’s team since November, attack the wall.  After having removed a dozen stones, Carter understands.  It is not a gold wall that he has in front of him.  It is one of the panels of an enormous chest which almost fills the room.  A chest of gilded wood.  The archaeologists have to double their precautions so as not to harm it, and it takes them no less than two hours to completely knock down the wall.

After which, Carter slips inside the chamber, between the wall and the chest, followed by Mace.  Two men cannot pass side by side:  this detail has its importance, for it is because of the narrowness of this passage that the objects of inestimable value, which had been placed by the priests inside a fifth little room, communicating with the funeral chamber by a low door, are able to be found intact.

For the moment, it is the big gilded wooden chest which intrigues Carter.  A chest?  Rather a sort of catafalque which measures three metres high by five long and three metres thirty wide.  The image of the falcon-god, Horus, is drawn on the sides.  Above the doors floats a winged sun.  Signs of magical appearance designed to protect the pharaoh’s sleep, decorate the door panels.  It is the burial place.  But, has it been respected?  Is Tutankhamun’s mummy still there?  This is what Carter is asking himself while the guests slip one by one along the walls and group behind him.

To be continued.

The real curse of the pharaohs – part 9

On his last visit to Tutankhamun’s tomb, the thief had probably been surprised by the inspectors whom the priests and the pharaohs regularly “appointed” to watch the tombs.  Like modern night watchmen, these inspectors were constantly making rounds.  When they discovered a theft, they “marked” it by placing a seal on the masonry which they, themselves, had applied to hermetically seal the tomb.

It therefore appears that Tutankhamun’s tomb, if it hadn’t totally escaped pillagers, had probably not been violated more than two or three times, no doubt a very long time ago;  the inspectors must have afterwards succeeded in sufficiently masking its entrance, to render it completely invisible.  The construction, above it, of the huts of Ramses VI’s workmen, would have finally plunged Tutankhamun’s tomb into oblivion, at the same time, protecting it from thieves for three thousand years.

So, Carter and Carnavon are reassured on the subject of thieves.  But something else worries them.  In the room, there is neither a sarcophage, nor a mummy.  Should it be concluded that they have only found a hiding-place of precious objects?  Is the real tomb of Tutankhamun somewhere else, or must it be admitted that the thieves were able to destroy the sarcophage and its mummy, or remove it?  Once more, an attentive examination tranquillizes them:  at the end of the antechamber, on the right, between the two statues of the king, they discern a new door, also sealed.  There are therefore other rooms, other treasures to exhume.  But Carter soon realises that this door has also been pierced, then resealed.  Another cold shower!

As can be imagined, Carter and Carnavon burn with desire to continue the dig.  To know if they are going to find the mummified body of the little unknown pharaoh of whom they have dreamed for more than fifteen years.  But their scientific minds win against their curiosity.  Before going any further, they decide to do a complete inventory of the antechamber’s riches.  This is the only way to definitively shield them from theft and assure their conservation.

***

For three months, Carter launches himself into laboratory work.  He decides to do everything on site, for fear of damaging the precious objects by transporting them to Cairo.  He buys photographic material, cartons and wrapping paper, planks on which to fix the most fragile pieces – enrobed in cotton wool.  Each object will be cleaned and manipulated with antisepticised instruments.  Carter installs his photographic workshop inside one of the ancient tombs discovered years before, that of Pharaoh Seti I, then a laboratory.  He hires some collaborators:  a chemist, an expert in Egyptian writing, a doctor specialised in anatomy, an Ancient Egypt historian, photographers and craftsmen used to the manipulation and cleaning of delicate objects.  Until mid-February, this team lists, numbers, photographs and classes the one hundred and sixty pieces found in the antechamber, from the biggest piece of furniture to the smallest piece of jewellery.  Under three a day, on average.  This seems very slow.  But so many precautions have to be taken.  The pearls, for example, fall into dust at the slightest knock…  And then, in December, administrative and diplomatic complications interfere with Carter’s efforts, obliging him to interrupt his work.

***

Lord Carnavon

The dig permit accorded to Lord Carnavon expires on 31 December 1922.  And the Egyptian Government, which fears – correctly – that Tutankhamun’s treasure will leave the country, does not hide its intention of taking over the tomb’s exploration.

So, Lord Carnavon leaves for London, at the beginning of December, to solicit the support of the British Government.  To his great disappointment, the public servants of the Foreign Office are extremely circumspect:  the Egyptian Protectorate is already giving enough worries to His Gracious Majesty, who does not wish to provoke a nasty quarrel with the Egyptian Government… over some old mummy!

Carnavon has more luck in Brussels where, on the recommendation of the Belgian archaeologist Jean Capart, he is received by the wife of Albert I, Queen Elisabeth.  The Queen, who will not cease until her death, in 1966, to protect the Arts, Sciences and Letters, promises him her support.  She intervenes with the Cairo authorities.  Action crowned with success:  Carnavon obtains the authorisation to continue the inventory of Tutankhamun’s tomb.  Just one condition:  a delegate from the Antiques Service will be permanently present at Carter’s side, to see that no piece leaves the territory.

***

In January, the work begins again at an accelerated pace.  The whole world is passionately following it now.  At the end of January, Carter accepts, to calm the impatience of international public opinion, to let journalists visit “his” antechamber.  He states that it will be the first and last time.

So, on 25 January 1923, thirty British, American, French and Egyptian reporters descend the famous sixteen steps behind Carter.  He tells them that a new little room, which he has baptised “the annexe”, has been discovered at the end of the antechamber, on the left, opposite the staircase.  It contains dozens of other objects, similar for the most part to those found in the first room.  As for the door which masks the entrance to the room where it is hoped that Tutankhamun’s sarcophage and mummy rest, Carter announces that it will be opened in a few days, at a date to be fixed by Lord Carnavon, whose return from England is imminent.

A disagreeable surprise awaits Carter and the journalists as they leave the tomb.  Behind a police cordon, about a hundred Arabs – not all of them fellahs – are gathered, and appear very excited.  Seeing the group formed by Carter and his guests, they start to hurl.  Small stones bombard the journalists who retreat hastily.  The policemen then decide to push back the demonstrators.  One of them cries out:

“In your country, tomb violators are condemned.  And when you do it here, it’s a feat which gives you rewards, that makes you rich…  You are just sacrilegious vandals who dig up bones to amuse the visitors to your museums.  Sorrow upon you!”

To be continued.