A scientist claims to have discovered the cause of the ‘Pharaoh’s curse’ that is believed to have killed more than 20 people when he opened King Tut’s tomb in 1922.
An ancient Egyptian text threatens “death from a disease which no physician can diagnose” to anyone who disturbs the royal mummified remains, but Ross Fellowes has suggested there was a biological reason behind the deaths.
The study determined that the cause was radiation poisoning from natural elements and toxic waste deliberately placed within the sealed vault.
Exposure to substances could have caused certain cancers, such as the one that killed archaeologist Howard Carter, the first person to enter Tutankhamun’s tomb more than 100 years ago.
Scientist claims to have solved ‘Pharaoh’s curse’ case believed to have killed more than 20 people when opening King Tut’s tomb in 1922
Carter died in 1939, probably of a heart attack after a long battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which affects the body’s germ-fighting immune system, and radiation poisoning has been linked as a cause of cancer.
Lord Carnarvon, one of the men who also walked the treasured rooms, died of blood poisoning five months after the discovery.
He suffered a serious mosquito bite, which became infected after a razor cut.
Shortly after the opening of the tomb, there was a brief power outage and all the lights in all of Cairo went out.
Carnarvon’s son also reported that his favorite dog howled and suddenly dropped dead.
Other people who participated in the excavation died from asphyxiation, stroke, diabetes, heart failure, pneumonia, poisoning, malaria, and exposure to x-rays; all were over 50 years old.
The British Egyptologist Arthur Weigall attended the inauguration of Tut’s tomb, where he was accused of inciting the “myth” of the curse: he died of cancer at the age of 54.
It has long been said that Lord Carnarvon (left) and Howard Carter (right) died due to the pharaoh’s cures.
The study determined that the cause was radiation poisoning from natural elements and toxic waste deliberately placed within the sealed vaults.
However, inscriptions found within other burials throughout Egypt suggested that the ancients knew about toxins.
The text included areas that were “forbidden” because of “evil spirits.”
The study, published in the Scientific Exploration MagazineHe explained that high levels of radiation have also been documented in the ruins of Old Kingdom tombs, at two sites in Giza and in several underground tombs in Saqqara.
The same conclusion was also found throughout the tomb of Osiris at Giza.
Fellowes noted that “intense radioactivity was associated with two stone chests, especially on the interior.”
Pictured is a lunch at a grave, present are JH Breasted (died from X-ray exposure, Harry Burton (died from diabetes), A Lucas, AR Callender (died from ill health), Arthur Mace (died from poison ) – all not older than 50 years
The first sight of the tomb when the door was broken down.
Professor Robert Temple noted that the chests were made of basalt, determining that “they were a point source of radiation, unlike the natural (radon) levels of the surrounding limestone bedrock.”
Other studies have directly measured radon gas at various locations in the Saqqara tombs.
Radon gas is an intermediate product of the decay of uranium, with a half-life of 3.8 days.
Ambient concentrations of radon were identified at six locations throughout the Saqqara ruins: the South Tomb, the warehouses of Djoser’s pyramid, and the Serapeum tomb tunnels.
Thousands of vessels excavated beneath the Step Pyramid in the 1960s contained up to 200 tons of unidentified substances that remain unidentified, suggesting the toxins were buried with mummified remains.
“The strong radiation (such as radon) reported in tomb ruins has been loosely attributed to the natural background of the bedrock,” Fellowes shared.
“However, the levels are unusually high and localized, which is inconsistent with the characteristics of the limestone bed but implies some other non-natural source.”
On November 4, 1922, Carter’s group found stairs leading to Tutankhamun’s tomb and spent several months cataloging the antechamber.
The team opened the burial chamber and discovered the sarcophagus in February of the following year.
The tomb is considered one of the most luxurious discovered in history and is filled with precious objects to aid the young pharaoh on his journey to the afterlife.
The trove of grave goods included 5,000 items, including solid gold grave shoes, statues, games and rare animals.
The small size of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, given its importance in Egyptian history, has baffled experts for years.
Tut’s burial chamber is the same size as an antechamber, rather than a tomb fit for an Egyptian king, for example.