Ancient Egyptians in the Modern Media!

Ever since the tomb of King Tutankhamen was discovered Egypt has been a booming sensation for the modern era. Egypt has been all around the modern spectrum from Elizabeth Taylor’s adaptation of Cleopatra to the multitude of movies, TV shows and books all based on mummies. It seems many share the same fascination I have for the mysterious civilization that is thousands upon thousands of years old. I’m happy for all these modern adaptations because it opened my eyes up to the Egyptian culture and made me realize how desperately I wanted to learn more.

I remember my first experience with the Egyptians it was when I was smaller. I remember watching this show called “Tutenstein” on Discovery Kids. This show taught me a lot in a dimmed down version for elementary school children. Obviously some things weren't accurate like the fact that king tut is portrayed as a 10 year old mummy brought back to life. He was 18 when he died! *cough cough* It’s also not technically possible to bring someone back to life with just a lightning bolt, this isn't some Frankenstein shit. Regardless throughout the show they had a lot of facts about Egypt so you learned quite a lot. Throughout the show tut schemes to get himself a pyramid. Since in actuality there isn't a formal pyramid for him due to the fact that he died rather young so there wasn't much time for them to create a pyramid in his honor.

So another way I learned about Egypt was through this show called “Truth or Scare” also on the discovery kids channel (this channel was my life I learned a lot). I am a big advocate of scary things so Egypt’s mummy’s curse kind of tantalized my mind with all these spooky possibilities. Sadly I couldn't find the exact episode for The Curse of Tutankhamen but there are also other shows that you could watch on YouTube just search for Truth or Scare.   

Howard Carter (Egyptologist)

So the Mummy’s curse came about after Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen. The tale goes as follows apparently James Breasted, a famous Egyptologist, worked with Howard shortly after he had discovered the tomb of King Tut. He stated that Carter had sent a messenger to his house and the messenger saw a cobra with Carter’s bird in its mouth. The cobra is a symbol of Egyptian monarchy. So the local people took this as a sign of a Mummy’s curse. Like in a sense that the Egyptians will kill Howard (bird got killed by snake). The insanity doesn’t stop there the story progresses. Well the first person to die was Lord Carnarvon, he had been bitten by a mosquito upon entering the tomb he then later accidently cut the wound while shaving which caused an infection. This infection turned into blood poisoning and he died soon after. Some reporter quoted an obscure thing from a book that indicated dire consequences to anyone that entered the tomb. This sparked the fuel for the Mummy’s curse. All of these coincidences were taken too seriously in the 20s. This is a bunch of Hogwash. Howard Carter the man who discovered the tomb didn’t die from any weird causes he never even had anything weird happen to him. Except this one instance where he saw jackals that looked like Anubis, god of mummification, but other than that he was skeptical about the curses.

I know the Mummy’s curse is still an interesting topic even though I don’t believe it. There are a lot of modern portrayals of it such as The Mummy movies or even TV shows like Truth or Scare. So if you want to know more about Egypt or the shows mentioned click on the links below!

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/curse-of-the-mummy/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/4277-tutenstein-cartoon-show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwzwe-TRwzM&list=PLCED576E6A6DFD268