Revealing the secret of “Tutankhamun's curse” that killed more than 20 people
When a group of researchers opened Shah Tut's tomb in 1922, a series of events led to 20 of them each being killed in a strange way. The incident became known as “Tutankhamun's Curse”. Now a scientist claims to have discovered the cause of this strange mystery.
According to Rosiato, ancient Egyptian texts threatened that anyone who disturbed the remains of a mummified member of the royal family would be killed by a disease that no doctor could diagnose. However, Ross Fellows believes there was a biological reason behind these mysterious deaths.
Howard Carter was the first scientist to enter Tutankhamun's tomb
The study determined that the radiation poisoning was caused by natural elements containing uranium and toxic waste that had been deliberately placed inside the sealed tomb.
The level of radiation inside Tutankhamun's tomb is so high that anyone who comes in contact with it is likely to get a lethal dose of radiation sickness and cancer.
“Egyptian populations, both ancient and contemporary, have experienced an unusual incidence of hematopoietic, bone/blood/lymphatic cancers, the main known cause of which is radiation exposure,” Fellows wrote in his study.
Exposure to these substances can lead to certain cancers, such as the cancer that struck archaeologist John Howard Carter. He was the first person to step into King Tut's tomb more than 100 years ago and saw the pharaoh's preserved sarcophagus in front of him.
Howard Carter (right) walking with Lord Carnarvon (left) outside Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922
Lord Carnarvon was considered the first victim of the “Pharaoh's Curse” for many years
Carter died in 1939 after a long battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma, believed to be caused by radiation poisoning.
Lord Carnarvon, the British financier of the project and another man who stepped into the treasure-filled tomb, died of blood poisoning from a severe mosquito bite five months after the discovery. He was the first victim of Pharaoh's curse.
lunch in the tomb; All the archaeologists present in this photo died in their 50s
Others involved in the excavation died of suffocation, stroke, diabetes, heart failure, pneumonia, poisoning, malaria, and exposure to X-rays. All of them died in their 50s.
Arthur Wigall, a British Egyptologist, who participated in the reopening of Tutankhamun's tomb, was accused of fueling the legend of the curse. He had told his colleagues that Carnarvon would die “within six weeks” after entering the tomb. Vigal himself died of cancer at the age of 54.
While these deaths can be considered strange, the curse theory is also likely bolstered by the strange events that occurred when the tomb was opened.
According to National Geographic, around the time the diggers opened the tomb, Cairo experienced a freak power outage and a sandstorm.
At another point during the dig, Carnarvon's favorite dog apparently let out a terrifying howl and suddenly dropped dead.
However, this radioactivity is not limited to the young king's tomb. Modern studies confirm very high levels of radiation in ancient Egyptian tombs, up to 10 times the accepted safety standards.
The study, published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, explained that high levels of radiation were also recorded in Old Kingdom tomb ruins at two sites in Giza and in several underground tombs in Saqqara. The same result was found throughout the tomb of Osiris at Giza.
Vases containing unknown materials were discovered under the step pyramid
Other studies have directly measured radon gas at various locations in the Saqqara tombs.
Thousands of vases excavated under the Step Pyramid in the 1960s contained more than 200 tons of unidentified substances that have yet to be identified, suggesting that toxins were buried with mummified remains.
