100 years ago, King Tutankhamun’s tomb was excavated, famously uncovering a mummy with a “pharaoh’s curse” on it. But our fascination with mummies goes way back. A USC Dornlife scholar explains why we are still haunted by these eerie ruins.
Key Point:
- November 4 marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, who is believed to have broken the curse.
- Our fascination with mummies actually dates back to the Middle Ages, when it developed into a medicinal treatment.
- In modern times, mummy movies have become a means of processing collective anxiety and guilt over the mess of historic tombs.
On November 4, 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter broke open the sealed doors of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, revealing a sarcophagus containing the mummified remains of ancient Egyptian pharaohs and vast wealth. It was an amazing find. But it wasn’t the golden treasure that propelled this discovery into mythological territory, but a morbid curse.
Howard Carter and his archaeological team make the first incision on the mummy of King Tutankhamun. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
Shortly after the tomb was opened, the expedition’s funder, Lord Carnarvon, died from an infected mosquito bite. Newspapers picked up on the incident and falsely claimed that a warning to those who entered the tomb had been written above the doorway.
“The Curse of the Mummy” soon fascinated people as much as the gold and silver of King Tutankhamun. 1932 movie mummy Since loosely adapting this story to the silver screen, haunted mummies seem to have a permanent place in our cultural consciousness. It joins the standard Halloween costume repertoire alongside vampires and witches.
But the “mummy madness” instigated by King Tutankhamun is just one of many waves of craze for bandaged remains that have swept the West since the Middle Ages. A closer look at why we continue to be fascinated by these crumbling creatures reveals a wealth of information, from long-standing beliefs in Egyptian magic, to guilt over the actions of colonial empires, to longing for undying love. origin becomes clear.
1 teaspoon of sugar drops mummy powder
Western interest in mummies arose with the idea that the ancient Egyptians possessed a lost form of magic. A passage from Exodus referring to “The Pharaoh’s Magician”. Together with the strange and undeciphered hieroglyphs left behind by a bygone Egyptian civilization, it ignited the imagination of medieval Europe.
Powdered mummy remains became a popular remedy in medieval Europe, prescribed for everything from bruises to epilepsy. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
“All of this has led to a view of ancient Egypt as an occult opposition to the Judeo-Christian faith,” he says. Thea TomainiProfessor (Education) English“Medieval Europeans considered hieroglyphs to be pictorial: they were not only mystical and tied to the magic of the Pharaoh’s sorcerers, but they were sculpted images, Especially idolatry.”
Mummies also played a strange and important role in early European medicine. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance to the Victorian era, Europeans used the powdered remains of mummies as healing powders and potions.
It originally stemmed from the Arabic practice of using bitumen or “mumia” in Persian, a sticky oil that naturally seeps from the earth in parts of the Middle East, as a therapeutic agent.
European pharmacists read about this substance in Arabic medical texts, and soon a robust bitumen trade between Europe and the Middle East began. They resorted to pulverizing ancient Egyptian mummies into powder, which appeared to use preservation techniques.
Over time, the fascination with bitumen gave way to the new romantic notion of consuming the literal flesh of mummies. combined the idea of the ancient Egyptian mystique with the idea that the ancient Egyptians’ bodies themselves possessed this magic,” says Tomaini.
death, set free
Prints by Napoleonic artists depicting Egyptian architecture, art, and everyday life caused all of Egypt’s craze in Europe and America. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
The metaphorical desire for mummies was further enhanced by Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt at the turn of the 19th century. Subsequent published art, detailed engravings of pyramids and temples, have influenced European and American art, literature, architecture and fashion.
It also sparked enthusiasm for expanding a new type of party activity: mummies. Guests watched while the hosts unwrapped the bandages from mummies imported from Egypt. Onlookers could examine the dead’s hair, bones, and jewelry up close.
Mummies have also appeared in museums and traveling exhibitions, drawing large crowds who can gaze at the withered corpse with candid curiosity. These exhibits overlapped with the rise of funeral parlors. In modern times, more and more families outsource the care of their dead to undertakers, as mummies on display may be the first corpses people see.
“The mummies allow us to view corpses in a safe environment. Told. Diana BlaineProfessor (Education) The study of gender and sexuality.
But all this unboxing and gooking seems to have caused a lasting sense of guilt.
“Most people have a deep religious or moral connection to the idea of resting in peace, wherever they are on the planet,” says Tomaini. “The fact that you’re digging up a mummy, unwrapping it at a dinner party, and displaying it in a museum really speaks to the deepest human fear that someone might invade your final resting place in the future. I am devastated.”
It was also during this period, long before the discovery of King Tutankhamun, that the first stories of resurrected mummies and the curse of mummies were produced. mummy! It featured a reanimated mummy, written by Jane C. Loudon in 1827, and Louisa May Alcott’s 1869 short story “Lost in the Pyramid” centered on a haunted seed taken from a pharaoh’s tomb.Notably, the earliest tales of vengeful mummies were written by women, and women committed the invasion of tombs. looks like rapeaccording to anthropologist and renowned Egyptologist Jasmine Day.
love springs forever
Our collective guilt over the treatment of mummies clearly spilled over into the mummy movies. Their plot always involves intrusive archaeologists incurring their wrath after disturbing the tombs of mummified pharaohs.
Much of this may be related to our apprehension of the exploits of the colonial empire, who dug up graves and removed thousands of mummies with little regard for local customs.
“I think there is a lot of colonialist guilt in these stories. What if not only things and my resting place were violated by someone from a faraway land who wanted to unwrap my linen and violate my body?” Take it off and cut me to pieces? For example, to remove King Tutankhamun’s gold wristband and funerary mask, archaeologists pulled his joints apart and then put them back together.
However, dealing with guilt isn’t what these movies are all about. “It’s the theme of lost love that ignites and energizes the plot,” he says. Leo Blaudyuniversity professor, English professor, art historyLeo S. Bing Chair of British and American Literature.
in the 1932 film mummy And in its 1999 remake, it revolves around a resurrected mummy’s ancient love for Princess Ankhesenamun, replaced by a modern woman that it meets after awakening. is. DraculaIs love eternal, does it endure through time?” says Bloudy.
And, of course, mummy movies explore one of the biggest problems of all. The resurrection power of mummies will remain attractive until immortality is achieved.
