Sunday, November 04, 2007

[king tut] will 2007 be like 1972 and 1923

"Death will come to those who disturb the sleep of the Pharaoh" was written over the tomb.

You know, the unsensational version of the story here reads almost as well as the sensational. However, time for some coincidences:

* Lord Carnarvon consulted mediums who all said not to enter Tut's tomb.

* 47 days after entering the tomb Carnarvon died at Hotel Continental in Cairo. The cause of death was unknown but a mosquito had bitten him where Tut himself had a cheek mark.

* Carnarvon's dog in England became agitated and died at the same time.

* The lights went out in Cairo for several minutes.

* Arthur Maze, another of the archeologists, died shortly afterwards, at the same hotel, complaining of tiredness and went into coma, never to come out.

* Archibald Reid, the team's radiologist returned to England after complaining of exhaustion. He died shortly afterwards.

* George Gould, friend of Carnarvon then travelled to Egypt, visited the tomb, collapsed of fever and died.

* Carnarvon's personal secretary, Richard Bethell, died of heart failure four months later.

* Howard Carter seemingly died of natural causes.

* Lord Carnarvon's half-brother committed suicide. The medics claimed temporary insanity as the cause.

* Mohammed Ibrahim, Egypt's director of antiquities, died in 1966. He begged Egyptian authorities not to let some of the relics leave the country for an exhibition in Paris. A car ran him down and he died.

* Richard Adamson, the expedition security chief not present at the opening, was the last survivor. In 1969 he reiterated his rejection of the "curse theory".

* His wife died less than 24 hours later, his son survived an aircraft crash, but broke his back.

* Adamson gave an interview on British television where he restated his denial most vehemently.

* His taxi crashed later that evening on his way from the studio and Adamson was almost decapitated by a passing truck.

* He gave another interview: "Until now I refused to believe that my family's misfortunes had anything to do with the curse. But now I am not so sure".

* In 1972, Tut and Co were flown to London with a Royal Air Force plane. Gamal Mehrez, Ibrahim's successor in Cairo ridiculed "curse talk" and died before the plane took off.

* Flight Lieutenant Rick Laurie suffered a heart-attack in 1976 and died, after having complained of "horrible visions and nightmares".

* Flight engineer, Ken Parkinson lived through heart-attacks each year at the same time the flight had commenced, until his fatal attack in 1978.

* Flight Lieutenant Jim Webb lost everything he owned during a fire.

My keyboard's keys have just changed positions, i.e. symbols are under their wrong keys since I began typing this and the internet just switched itself off.

All coincidence, of course.

* Now, "85 years later to the day after the pharoah's tomb was discovered", archaeologists have not only removed the face mask but also the linen shroud around the body. They claim it's to "preserve the body".

Am I the only one to think that this shows the same lack of respect our gallant leaders are currently showing us? Perhaps I'm mistaken - what's respect for the dead when there's a lot of money to be made?

Is Tut in good hands or is he in the hands of those he shouldn't be? How would he feel about being on public display like this? Would you like to see your grandfather's dead body exhumed and put on display, unadorned?

Will you go to look upon Tut uncovered?

15 comments:

  1. Don't forget the curse of Dad's Army. As Viz pointed out a few years ago, all but one of the main cast have died...

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  2. Yes, I was forgetting that. And the Addams family too!

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  3. I think they should have left the poor lad alone. Gruesome and scary! [I seem to be finding everything scary these days...]

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  4. Silly me.
    First you have to edumuncate the auditors.
    I missed that.
    But if they're not edumuncated, why use them?
    You know better ones.

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  5. IanP
    It is blogger and its tracking that is causing problems with links.
    Tell your service people.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a coincidence. My next Philadelphia post (likely next week) will be the King Tut exhibit I attended. I'll have to remember this link.

    Well I've seen so many others over the years, mummies and saints that I wouldn't really say no to seeing him. In fact, I would be delighted to go to the tomb. I'm sure that it will help to preserve the body in that climate controlled situation.

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  7. Good luck, JMB and hope your health is fine.

    Thanks Welsh and Anon.

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  8. Given that blogger is owned by google, and geography seems to play a part in content accessibility, I offer the comment that I have read, but can't find the link, that Chinese telcos are rerouting chinese searches of google, yahoo, and microsoft through to Baidu, a chinese search engine. I do believe yahoo bought an interest in Baidu, but I'm too lazy to check.
    I would also draw your attention to these links.

    here

    here

    here

    here

    here

    here

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  9. OOPS, - I'm incorrect.
    It was google who had an interest in Baidu, but the interest was sold when Baidu went IPO on NASDAQ in 2005. Right now, earnings per share are growing at 25.4% Q on Q, and Baidu has 60.5% of the Chinese market.
    At the end of June, 07, China had 162 million internet users.
    Baidu reportedly has "close relations" with the Chinese govt.
    Baidu has 120,000 paying customers in an economy with 20 million small businesses.

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  10. It wouldn't be a very nice job to be the night cleaner at the Tut place would it despite the silliness of the curse thing..

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  11. Great post and I think that you are right. Just because he is so old that no family members can object( or sue) I think it a disgrace that thye would display him as some object rather in such an undignified way, as if he was never a human being . Disgraceful!

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  12. Do you really want to know what I think?
    See my blog and posts

    Tutankhamen

    ReplyDelete

Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.