16 February 2016

History for the day: 1923: King Tut's tomb opened

History.com has this for 16 February:




On 16 February 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter entered the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen. Because the ancient Egyptians saw their pharaohs as gods, they carefully preserved their bodies after death, burying them in elaborate tombs containing rich treasures to accompany the rulers into the afterlife. In the nineteenth century, archeologists from all over the world flocked to Egypt, where they uncovered a number of these tombs. Many had long ago been broken into by robbers and stripped of their riches.
When Carter arrived in Egypt in 1891, he became convinced there was at least one undiscovered tomb, that of the little-known Tutankhamen, or King Tut, who lived around 1400 BC and died when still a teenager. Backed by a rich Briton, Lord Carnarvon, Carter searched for five years without success. In early 1922, Lord Carnarvon wanted to call off the search, but Carter convinced him to hold on for one more year.
In November of 1922, the wait paid off, when Carter’s team found steps hidden in the debris near the entrance of another tomb. The steps led to an ancient sealed doorway bearing the name Tutankhamen. When Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb’s interior chambers on 26 November, they were thrilled to find it virtually intact, with its treasures untouched after more than three thousand years. The men began exploring the four rooms of the tomb, and on 16 February 1923, under the watchful eyes of a number of important officials, Carter opened the door to the last chamber.
Inside lay a sarcophagus, with three coffins nested inside one another. The last coffin, made of solid gold, contained the mummified body of King Tut. Among the riches found in the tomb– golden shrines, jewelry, statues, a chariot, weapons, clothing– the perfectly preserved mummy was the most valuable, as it was the first ever discovered. Despite rumors that a curse would befall anyone who disturbed the tomb, its treasures were carefully catalogued, removed and included in a famous traveling exhibition called the Treasures of Tutankhamen. The exhibition’s permanent home is the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Rico says that Tutankhamen made it all the way to Philadelphia...

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