The Curse of the Pharaohs' Tombs

by Harrison Paul

  The following curses/threats have been found in tombs. Where it has been possible to identify a tomb bearing such inscriptions, these are detailed in brackets. The mortuary temple built in honour of Amenhotep was protected by the following curse:

  As for anyone who will come after me and who will find the foundation of the funerary tomb in destruction... as for anyone who will take the personnel from among my people... as for all others who will turn them astray... I will not allow them to perform their scribal function... I will put them in the furnace of the King... His uraeus will vomit flame upon the top of their heads, demolishing their flesh and devouring their bones. They will become Apophis (a divine serpent who is vanquished) on the morning of the day of the year. They will capsize in the sea which will devour their bodies. They will not receive honours received by virtuous people. They will not be able to swallow offerings from the dead. One will not pour them water in libation... Their sons will not occupy their places, their women will be violated before their eyes. Their great ones will be so lost in their houses that they will be upon the floor... They will not understand the words of the King at the time when he is in joy. They will be doomed to the knife on the day of the massacre... Their bodies will decay because they will starve and will not have sustenance and their bones will perish. As for anything you shall do against this my grave the like shall be done against yours. Every man who shall interfere with this my stela, I will be judged with him in the place where judgment is made. As for any man who will make a disturbance, I shall be judged with him. A crocodile be against him in the water; a snake be against him on land, he who would do anything against this tomb. Never did I do a thing against him. It is the god who will judge. As for anybody who shall enter this tomb in his impurity: I shall ring his neck as a bird’s.

  Inscription found in tomb of High Priest Hermeru, Dyn. 5:

  As for any man who shall destroy these, it is the god Thoth who shall destroy him. As for him who shall destroy this inscription: He shall not reach his home. He shall not embrace his children. He shall not see success. As for anything that you might do against this tomb of mine of the West, the like shall be done against your property. I am an excellent lector priest, exceeding knowledgeable in secret spells and all magic. As for any person who will enter into this tomb of mine in their impurity, having eaten the abominations that excellent akh-spirits abominate, or who do not purify themselves as they should purify themselves for an excellent akh who does what his lord praises, I shall seize him like a goose (wring his neck), placing fear in him at seeing ghosts upon earth, that they might be fearful of an excellent akh... But as for anyone who will enter into this tomb of mine being pure and peaceful regarding it, I shall be his protective backer in the West in the court of the great god. Found in tomb of Ankhmahor - Saqqara - Old Kindom.

  I shall seize his neck like that of a goose. Inscription of Hermeru, Dynasty 6.

  He shall die from hunger and thirst. Found on a statue of Herihor, High Priest of Amun, Dyn. 20-21.

  He shall have no heir. Inscription of Tuthmosis I, Dyn. 18.

  His years shall be diminished. Found on a statue of Monthuemhat, Dyn. 25-26.

  His lifetime shall not exist on earth. Inscribed on the tomb of Senmut, Dyn. 18.

  His estate shall belong to the fire, and his house shall belong to the consuming flame ... His relatives shall detest him. Found on the tomb of Tefib, Dyn. 9-10.

  He shall be miserable and persecuted. Inscribed on the tomb of Penniut, Dyn. 20.

  His office shall be taken away before his face and it shall be given to a man who is his enemy. Found on a statue of the scribe Amenhotep, Dyn. 18.

  His face shall be spat at. Found on El-Hasaia tomb, Dyn. 26.

  A donkey (the animal of Seth) shall violate him, a donkey shall violate his wife. Deir el-Bahri Graffito No.11, Dyn. 20.

  His heart shall not be content in life. Found on a statue of Wersu, Dyn. 18.

  He shall be cooked together with the condemned. Found on the tomb of Khety II, Dyn. 9-10.

  His name shall not exist in the land of Egypt. Found on a statue of the high priest Herihor, Dyn. 20-21.

  Listen all of you! The priest of Hathor will beat twice any of you who enters this tomb or does harm to it. The gods will confront him because I am honored by his Lord. The gods will not allow anything to happen to me. Anyone who does anything bad to my tomb, then the crocodile, hippopotamus, and lion will eat him. Inscription found in the entrance to the Dynasty 3 tomb of Petety at Giza.

  He shall not exist. Found on the tomb of Khnumhotep, Dyn. 12.

  His wife shall be taken away before his face. Apanage Stele, Dyn. 22.

  His years shall be diminished. Found on a statue of Monthuemhat, Dyn. 25-26.

  The curse upon the offerings to Sarenput I, nomarch of Elephantine under Senusret I (Dynasty 12), read:

  As for every mayor, every wab-priest, every scribe and every nobleman who shall take [the offering] from the statue, his arm shall be cut off like that of this bull, his neck shall be twisted off like that of a bird, his office shall not exist, the position of his son shall not exist, his house shall not exist in Nubia, his tomb shall not exist in the necropolis, his god shall not accept his white bread, his flesh shall belong to the fire, his children shall belong to the fire, his corpse shall not be to the ground, I shall be against him as a crocodile on the water, as a serpent on earth, and as an enemy in the necropolis.

  Another curse is clear in its purpose:

  He who trespasses upon my property or who shall injure my tomb or drag out my mummy, the sun god shall punish him. He shall not bequeath his goods to his children; his heart shall not have pleasure in life; he shall not receive water in the tomb; and his soul shall be destroyed forever. As to anyone who violates my body which is in the tomb and who shall remove my image from tomb, he shall be hateful to the gods, and he shall not receive water on the altar of Osiris. (Found in the tomb of Ursa)

  Some tombs ask for prayers, with the deceased owner promising to assist the living if they will say the offering prayer for the dead. The explorer Harkhuf is typical:

  Oh you living people, who are upon the earth, [who shall pass by this tomb] going downstream or going upstream, say: ‘A thousand loaves [of bread] and thousand jars of beer for the owner of this tomb;’ I will [do good] for their sakes in the Underworld. I am an excellent, well equipped spirit, a ritual priest, whose mouth knows [powerful spells].

  Harkhuf’s threat, or curse, is typical as well: ‘As for any man who shall enter into [this] tomb, ... [I will seize] him like a wild fowl; he shall be judged by the great god.’ These curses basically consist of the owner of the tomb invoking judgment in the underworld on any would-be violators. The inscription served as a reminder that the ancient Egyptians’ responsibility was to Maat, which is best described as the complete system of order and justice, the overall pattern of life, and reiterated the potential dire consequences of any kind of rebellious action against Maat. It remains, potentially, the most powerful message to travel the passage of time, as subsequent races and religions since have inherited a fear and respect of the curse of the pharaoh. In some instances important decrees were protected by means of threat, as the following example shows:

  As to any King and powerful person who will forgive him, he will not receive the white crown, he will not raise up the red crown, he will dwell upon the throne of Horus of the living. As for any commander or mayor who will petition my Lord to pardon him, his property and his fields will be put as offerings for my father Min of Coptos.

  It wasn’t only tombs that bore such curses, they appeared in letters too. A letter written in the Middle Kingdom from one woman to another closed with ‘May you be sick when you read this.’ In another, a woman who had adopted servants as her children and wished to assure their position wrote:

  As Amun endures and the ruler endures, I make the people whom I have recorded freshmen of the land of Pharaoh. Should a son of a daughter or a brother or a sister
of their mother or their father contest with them – except for this son of mine, Pendiu – for they are no longer slaves to him, but are brothers and sisters to him, being freemen of the land – may a donkey copulate with him and a female donkey copulate with his wife, if anyone shall call one of them a slave.

  The evidence for the pharaoh’s mysterious curse causing hurt or physical harm to anyone remains purely anecdotal. That is, the evidence consists entirely of stories of deaths, illnesses, and disasters that have befallen those who have worked on the pyramids or, in some instances, have visited them or touched genuine artifacts. To date, despite valiant efforts by scribes, writers, journalists, film producers and documentary film makers, no hard evidence has been produced to show that the countless tragic and seemingly mysterious events that are associated with ancient Egypt and the pyramids can be classed matters of coincidence, gross exaggeration, over indulgence of the imagination, or if they are actually in some way connected to the ancient pharaohs.

  I believe that, like the ancient Egyptians, we as a civilisation like to think and believe there is an afterlife, a place where we could all exist in peace and tranquility. Today, we still have embalmers and burial rituals and ceremonies for individual religions, we still put personalised inscriptions on tombs and graves, and we have psychics, mediums, ghost-hunters all with huge followings – who want us to believe they are in contact with the ‘other world’. Perhaps worst of all, we still have tomb and grave robbers. As a modern race, have we really progressed?

  Chapter 9

  Tutankhamun’s Tomb – The Hidden Story

  We have previously discussed the curious deaths associated with the opening of King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Primarily, we are reliant upon the testimony of the lead archaeologist, Howard Carter, but over the years Carter’s credibility has come into question.

  Lord Carnarvon was the first to allegedly fall victim to the curse, followed some time later, curiously in the same hotel, by the American Egyptologist Arthur Meiss. Shortly thereafter, a number of other scientists were found dead, including Archibald Douglas Reid, a professor of radiology. Reid was the first to lift the linen fabrics from the mummy, and to reveal the body of Tutankhamen for X-ray photography. Between 1922 and 1929, more than thirteen Egyptologists died. Each of them had a connection to the tomb of Tutankhamun, either the opening of it, or having worked in it or on the associated artifacts. However, the lead archaeologist Howard Carter declared that no curse existed, and none was ever found in the pharaoh’s tomb. He reportedly dismissed the idea as nonsense, and attributed the deaths to a strange set of coincidences. He also used himself as an example, because he lived on long after discovering the tomb and working in it. That might have been the end of the matter, but there are many who question the integrity of Howard Carter. Some even accuse him of deliberate lies about entering and examining of the tomb.

  The curse was enthusiastically reported in the press, with numerous versions of the alleged curse appearing. However, the first people to discuss it, some of the Egyptian tomb workers, disclosed that a curse tablet was found at the tomb, which read: ‘Death Shall Come on Swift Wings To He Who Disturbs The Peace of The King’. As with so many matters, Carter swore each of the tomb workers to absolute secrecy about anything and everything that was taking place at the dig site. The world’s press were in Luxor in their hundreds covering the find; each reporter was desperate for a story and therefore doing their utmost to find one. The tomb workers were not foolish enough to speak with the press; instead they kept their own counsel and only spoke of the excavations and treasures to those closest to them. These are stories that have been passed down through generations before reaching this book.

  There remains a belief among some Egyptians that a curse tablet was found on the door of the tomb, but it was removed by Carter because he knew it would cause panic among his workforce, who would refuse to enter the tomb and therefore hinder the excavations. So Carter allegedly destroyed the tablet, smashing into pieces until it was dust, and threatened the tomb workers, forcing them into silence. It was effectively one of the first ‘media blackouts’ on record.

  Historians, archaeologists and mainstream scientists have little time for anecdotal evidence, particularly as it questions the absolute integrity of one of their own – Howard Carter. The official story has Carter identifying the sealed tomb door on 5 November and, by his own account, he felt ‘almost overwhelmed’ by the urge to break open the irksome door, but he resisted and buried the stairs once again. The following day he sent a telegram to Carnarvon, advising him of the find and summoning him to the dig site. Carter then waited for over two weeks for Carnarvon to arrive to officially break in and enter the tomb, which showed signs of a previous ancient break in and tomb robbery.

  How much of this official version is true? We can assess it based on the facts that we have. In 1947 one of Carter’s team, the highly respected Manchester-born chemist Alfred Lucas, who worked for the Egyptian Antiquities Service from 1923-1932 and with Carter for nine dig seasons, spoke out and sowed the seed of doubt about the truth behind the entering of the tomb. It should be said that Lucas had nothing to gain from the details he offered; if anything it would cast doubt on his own reputation.

  Lucas stated, in a Cairo-based scientific journal, that he knew that Carter had secretly broken open the door to the burial chamber and entered. A few hours later he resealed it with a different (authenticlooking) antique seal. Is it really feasible that Carter, on the brink of such a fantastic find, could resist the temptation to enter and have a look around, and remove some objects for his own private purposes? Carter was, at that time, hardly respected in his field; he had consistently upset officials and had an overly, some say unjustified, high opinion of himself.

  Carter claimed that the tomb robbers had stolen perfumes, cosmetics and linen, and that a later break in was more destructive and had damaged many artifacts and treasures. The question remains, would genuine tomb robbers really concentrate on stealing perfumes and cosmetics, and ignore the wealth of gold treasure, rings and jewellery that lay all around the tomb? In addition, in Carter’s own words, ‘in the ante-chamber there had been some sort of attempt to clear up after the plunderer’s visit.’ Would a tomb robber seriously try to clear up the mess he had made prior to exiting the tomb? Carter continues to discuss the damage to the second chamber door; ‘a small breach had been made near the bottom, just wide enough to admit a boy or a slightly built man, and that the hole made had subsequently been filled up and resealed.’ The space within the chambers was limited, perhaps sufficient for one individual to clamber through and forage through the riches on display, then extract himself armed with the stolen goods. At the time of burial, the tomb was sealed and access blocked by mounds of rubble, yet Carter would have us believe that robbers removed this debris to create sufficient space to reseal the point of entry and disguise their break in? Such effort on behalf of the robbers must be regarded as highly speculative and most improbable. Bearing in mind that the tomb robbers would be acting quickly, and that breaking in would take a good deal of effort (removing sufficient debris from the blocked up passageway to allow minimal access to the door), once the tomb had been accessed and plundered they would have achieved their purpose but the risk element would have increased. With incriminating stolen property in their possession, being caught might mean instant death. They would waste no time fleeing the scene.

  To further support the claim of Alfred Lucas, we have the 1979 revelations of Thomas Hoving, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1967–77) who published an account apparently penned by Lord Carnarvon shortly before his death. This claimed that Howard Carter, Carnarvon himself, and his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert and entered the tomb at night. They had got through two sealed doors and into the burial chamber. Entry had been gained by breaking a small hole in the bottom of the door to the burial chamber; on leaving, the hole was covered with reeds. There is evidence that Carter was purloining artifacts and either selli
ng or giving them away: indeed, he was caught in the act by Pierre Lacau, who was then Egypt’s Director of Antiquities. Lacau, accompanied by some of his staff and in the absence of Howard Carter, visited the tomb on 29 March to check progress and look at the inventories. He was pleased to note that Carter was maintaining accurate logs of everything discovered in the tomb with a unique triple index system: items were recorded in the official register, on the box in which they were stored and items themselves were labelled.

  All seemed well until Lacau went into one of the side chambers of the tomb and saw a stack of Fortnum and Mason champagne crates. All of them, with the exception of one, were open. The closed and sealed box bore a label that simply stated ‘red wine’. Lacau was suspicious and instructed his staff to force the crate open. When they did they were stunned to find not red wine, but, wrapped in surgical gauze, a wooden bust of the head of Tutankhamun. The image portrayed the Egyptian god-king rising from a lotus flower. The statue was in the unique ‘Amarna’ style of art, first developed by Akhenaten, with the back of the head exaggeratedly long. Artistically and historically it was a major find within the tomb, so why was it not registered anywhere, and more to the point, why was it in a box marked ‘red wine’? The Egyptian party recognised that something was wrong and immediately took possession of the bust. Carter later claimed the bust had been found in the passageway leading into the tomb, and he had not got round to documenting its existence in the official register. It should also be noted that Carter fails to mention the existence of the bust in the first volume of his 1923 book, The Tomb of Tutankhamun. Something so overtly valuable and he omits it from all records! One can only be suspicious, particularly as Carter was apparently meticulous in the recording detail of artifacts found in the tomb.