Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images. However, the circumstances surrounding his sudden death at the age of nineteen remain a matter of conjecture. The laboratory techniques necessary for the diagnosis of aspergillosis were available but, with a low index of suspicion, Dr Johnson is unlikely to have analysed his patient's sputum for aspergillus. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. “Those of us who have anything to do with mummies know the degree that post mortem changes with the effects of mummification itself and along with what may have happened are really difficult to factor in and create a believable narrative,” says Betsy M. Bryan, professor of near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University, who has worked for decades researching ancient Egypt. Recommend Lancet journals to your librarian. The tomb of the Boy King Tutankhamun. A new book Lordy!Tutankhamun's Patron As A Young Man by William Cross, FSA Scot ( the biographer of Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon ) " exposes the truth suppressed for almost 90 years, regarding the death of George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and co-discoverer with Howard Carter of the Tomb Of Tutankhamun in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. 1891 was the year an adventurer, bolder than most, by the name Howard Carter found himself in Egypt. Howard Carter became famous because of a 4,000 year old man.

While records of his life were erased, in death, King Tut became ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh. Howard Carter became famous because of a 4,000 year old man. Carter hinted at that future fascination when he first entered the pharaoh’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Soon, Carter was supervising all of Lord Carnarvon's excavations. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. except certain content provided by third parties. In 1899, he was offered a position working for the Egyptian Antiquities service, from which he resigned as a result of a dispute, in 1905. Ever since Howard Carter found Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of Kings in 1922, Egyptologists have been striving to establish how the iconic Egyptian pharaoh met his end. However, spores of aspergillus can remain dormant in the lungs of infected individuals for extended periods before being activated, and it is conceivable that Lord Carnarvon was indeed symptom-free for the 5 months after his first ingress into the tomb in Novemver, 1922.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14268-7, We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content and ads. ©2020 AETN UK. He had an artistic streak from an early age and when his father painted a well-known Egyptologist, his life-long interest in the field was ignited. “It’s quite possible what ultimately killed him has left no trace,” Naunton says. Was he murdered? On his gravestone, it states: " May your spirit live, May you spend millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness" and "O night, spread thy wings over me as the imperishable stars.". While that theory sounded like a good story, there were no records that such an incident occurred. “They specifically tried to take memory of the entire family away by not including them in later lists of kings. He was a sickly child and was sent to live with his aunts in Norfolk where he was given private home schooling. Lord Carnarvon could readily have inhaled contaminated grain dust as the sealed tomb was broken into. Privacy Policy   Terms and Conditions, Guy's King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London SE1 1UL, UK, St Bartholomew's and The Royal London School of Medicine, London. It’s as if these people didn’t exist,” Silverman says. Asked by a colleague on the outside if he saw anything, Carter replied, “Yes, wonderful things.”, Read more: See Stunning Photos of King Tut’s Tomb After a Major Restoration. Since then, Tutankhamen has become a “household name”.

King Tut's tomb (categorised KV 62) is unusually small considering his status, which hints at an unexpected death before a grander final resting place could be completed.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Carter first examined the remains in 1926 and then returned the mummy to the outer burial chamber where it remained until 2007.