Curse of the Mummy - Essay Example

In 1922, Howard Carter and his team discovered King Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt. The tomb held treasures hidden for 3,000 years. The Curse of the Mummy is based on stories that those who were present when King Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened died one by one. This included Lord Carnarvon, the sponsor of the expedition.

Two theories are offered to explain the mummy’s curse. The first is the existence of “tomb toxins.” Dr. Caroline Stenger-Phillip proposed in 1986 that ancient mold in the tomb could have caused deadly allergic reactions (Dunning, 2008). Since fruits and vegetables and other organic items were also put in tombs, and since the tombs were entirely hermetically sealed, it is possible that mold spores could have existed and stayed viable for thousands of years (Dunning, 2008). Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus, for instance, are molds that can cause allergic reactions such as congestion and bleeding in the lungs (Handwerk 2006). The second theory asserts that there is no connection between the tomb’s opening and several deaths of those present when the tomb was opened. F. DeWolfe Miller, professor of epidemiology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, argued that no archeologist is known to have directly died from the curse (Handwerk, 2012). In 2002, the British Medical Journal published a study conducted by Dr. Mark Nelson from Monash University in Australia. Nelson did a retrospective cohort analysis to determine if the dates of death actually of people who were there during Tut’s tomb opening were hastened, due to the existence of a possible curse (Dunning, 2008). Findings showed that only 25 were exposed to the curse and lived to the average age of 70, while those who were not exposed lived to the average age of 75 (Dunning, 2008).

The best theory is the one that finds no connection between the deaths and the curse of the mummy. It is clear that there is no direct relationship between participation in the opening of the tomb and dying, as Nelson’s study showed. Furthermore, Miller also showed that archeologists involved with the tomb did not die at all. The curse is a mere coincident among deaths that the media fed on.