No Curse of King Tut
George Herbery, the financial backer of archaeologist Howard Carter, who uncovered the treasures of the boy king’s tomb, died four months after he and Carter entered the tomb in November 1922. Immediately, journalists called the blood clot from an infected mosquito bite that caused his death the “mummy’s curse.” That created a flurry of reports of sudden deaths of others who had visited the tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Turns out, those reports were contrived by reporters who claimed they saw an inscription about a curse outside the tomb. Further, scientists in 2002 examined the survival rates of 44 Westerners who had been in Egypt during Carter’s excavation, concluding that they were not at elevated risk of dying early.
Tutankhamen Held Traditional Religious Beliefs
King Tut’s legacy is not steeped in a lot of events. He was, however, at the head of one major change. He reversed unpopular religious perspectives of his father, Akhenaten, who considered the god Aten to be Egypt’s most important deity and encouraged his worship above all others. He also transferred the Egyptian capital from Thebes to a new site devoted to Aten. His son restored the god Amun to his former glory and moved the capital back to Thebes. He abandoned his original name, Tutankhaten (“living image of Aten”), for Tutankhamen (“living image of Amun”).
