Cursed and forgiven?
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 12:32 p.m., November 6, 2007
Updated 12:32 p.m., November 6, 2007
As they would say in show biz: Together again for the first time in 85 years — King Tut!
The Boy King died or was killed more than 3000 years ago. His mummy was dug up 85 years ago by archaeologist Howard Carter, who did not treat it very well.
In the last swashbuckling days of archaeology as treasure hunt, Carter pulled Tutankhamun’s mummy apart in his efforts to get, among other things, the king’s gold funeral mask. The pieces of the mummy were shuffled around for decades — displayed, tested and stuck into stuffy drawers. The mummy was not treated with the respect due a former king whose remains had survived so long.
But now, that unpleasant interlude is over. The Egyptian national museum that now, properly, has control over the mummies and their treasure found in that country, has put Tut back together again. The king’s blackened, resin-covered body now lies in state in a glass case in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
And perhaps the curse of King Tut — if there was such a thing — has been lifted.
The curse rumor started when Lord Carnarvon, the sponsor of Carter’s expedition, died shortly after the discovery of Tut’s tomb. The sensational press linked two other deaths to the supposed curse — those of Carter’s canary and Carnarvon’s dog.
Carter himself — the man who had broken into the tomb and ripped the gold from the mummy — lived for many productive years.
That doesn’t seem like much of a curse.
Here in Kansas, we’ve had a curse with some real teeth. The University of Kansas football team had gone 98 years since last beginning a season with nine wins and no losses. This year, the curse was broken.
KU football fans, steeped in years of disappointment, don’t quite know how to handle this sudden shower of blessings. For so many years, the unofficial mottoes of KU football have been “Maybe next year” and “It matters not if you win or lose, but how you play the game.”
Now, finally, next year has come and fans are discovering that they had much underrated the benefits of winning.
If that curse can be lifted, why not the ancient curse of Tut?