ShortHand: Tutankhamun's Curse

Summary

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RedHanded: ShortHand – Tutankhamun's Curse

Date: June 26, 2026
Hosts: C & D

Episode Overview

In this ShortHand episode, the RedHanded hosts dive into the legendary discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb and the infamous “curse” that supposedly claimed the lives of those involved. With their signature blend of macabre humor and rigorously researched detail, the hosts bust myths, uncover truths about Howard Carter and the dig team, spotlight the global Tut-mania that followed, and examine whether there was any real supernatural vengeance lurking behind Tut’s golden mask.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Discovery of the Tomb

• Howard Carter's Background

  • "In a refreshing turn of events for us at Red Handed, he seems to have been a pretty decent man." – D [03:44]
  • Carter, the youngest of 11, son of artist Samuel John Carter. Not much formal education – into art and adventure. [04:01]
  • Artistic talent led to connection with the Amherst family, sparking his Egypt obsession. Lady Amherst sent him to Egypt as an artist at dig sites. [04:42]
  • Became Inspector of Monuments in Upper Egypt by age 25; introduced systematic archaeology and preservation standards. [05:26]

• The Saqqara Affair

  • Carter lost his job backing local Egyptian guards over racist French tourists. "Howard Carter backed the guards in the official investigation and he ended up unemployed in Egypt for several years." – D [06:25]
  • Sold watercolors and sketches to get by until Lord Carnarvon (George Herbert) hired him. [07:00]

• The Lead-Up to the Find

  • By 1922, they'd been digging for 15 years. Most thought there was “nothing left” in the Valley of the Kings, but Carter had a hunch about Tutankhamun. [07:56]
  • "Tutankhamun wasn’t a particularly well known name within Egyptology at the time." – D [08:13]
  • Carter convinces Herbert to fund one more season; focuses on the overlooked area beneath workers' huts. [09:07]
  • Egypt’s independence complicated proceedings—"Egypt wanted to keep a proportion of what was found, which is fair enough." – D [10:10]

• The Discovery

  • "On 4 November, a stone step was found... then another, and so on, until a stone staircase was revealed that led down to the entrance of a tomb." – C [11:02]
  • The tomb was well-hidden, only accessible now because it had been buried by debris from another project.

2. The Entrance and Exploration

• Initial Entry

  • Carter waits 19 days for Herbert, opens the tomb with Herbert and Lady Evelyn present. The inscription read: Tutankhamun. Carter’s hunch was right. [13:06]
  • “Once the plaster door was fully uncovered, Carter cut a small hole and peered through... strange animals, statues, and gold. Everywhere, the glint of gold.” – Carter, quoted by C [01:46] & [16:15]

• The Contents

  • The antechamber had 700 objects, including war chariots, fans, and couches carved to look like animals. “Making it one of the biggest finds in Egyptian archaeology.” – D [16:47]
  • The annex contained 280 more items (food, drink, games for the afterlife), looted only lightly thousands of years ago.
  • The burial chamber: walls painted with scenes of Tutankhamun, shrine with nested sarcophagi, and Tut’s mummy adorned with the famous golden death mask – actually depicting Osiris, not Tut. [19:04]
  • The treasury: canopic jars, golden shrine, life-sized Anubis statue. "There was still one more room behind the burial chamber. The treasury." – C [19:59]

• Significance

  • "It remains the only intact Egyptian tomb ever found." – D [20:52]
  • Tut himself: not historically very important; son of Akhenaten, restored polytheism, died at 19 from likely genetic and health issues (“super inbred”) [23:01]

3. The Curse: Truth or Tabloid?

• Birth of the Myth

  • Press went wild after Carter’s canary was killed by a cobra—the pharaoh’s symbol. [25:44]
  • "Of course, he is in Egypt." – C [26:36]
  • The day Carter opened the tomb, he sent a messenger boy home—the boy found the dead canary. Superstition started immediately.

• George Herbert’s Death

  • Four months after the discovery, Herbert dies from an infected mosquito bite ("supernatural explanation was the curse, which is clearly bollocks"). [26:42]
  • Coincidence: Tut himself had a scar in a similar spot.

• Other “Victims”

  • About 17 deaths (including the canary) attributed to the curse—though causes were natural, and often years later.
    • Notable “Curse” Deaths:
      • George Day Gould: tourist died after digging visit [27:50]
      • Arthur Mace: died of pneumonia, four years after [27:50]
      • Richard Bell: Carter’s secretary, died suspiciously in a nightclub, seven years post-discovery [27:50]
      • Howard Carter: died sixteen years after opening the tomb at age 64—"That's no curse." – C [29:43]

• Reality Check

  • "Is this basically just anyone who died?" – D [28:41]
  • Press exaggerated connections; deaths not extraordinary given era/lifestyle.
  • Carter’s legacy is his contributions to archaeology, not as a curse victim.

• Actual Deadly Tombs

  • Hosts cite the tomb of Casimir IV (opened 1973), where 10 out of 12 died—due to inhaling toxic mold, not a supernatural curse. [29:48]
  • “That’s more like it, right? And it was all to do with Aspergillus flavus. Sounds cursey enough to me.” – D [29:48]

4. Tutankhamun’s Pop Culture Legacy

• Tut-mania
  • The global public, swept up in Egyptomania, threw “King Tut parties” and decorated homes with Tut-themed motifs in the 1920s. [24:18]
  • “I love that. So like in the mid-20s, everyone's just throwing King Tut parties?” – D [24:35]
  • The find shaped fashion, interior design, and pop culture worldwide.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Carter’s First Peek:

  • “Strange animals, statues, and gold. Everywhere, the glint of gold.” – Howard Carter, quoted by C [01:46], [16:15]

• On Howard Carter:

  • "In a refreshing turn of events for us at Red Handed, he seems to have been a pretty decent man." – D [03:44]

• On the Pharaoh's Curse:

  • "The supernatural explanation was the curse, which is clearly bollocks." – D [26:42]
  • “Is this basically just anyone who died?” – D [28:41]
  • “That's no curse.” – C [29:43]

• On Tutankhamun:

  • “To be brutally honest, that is kind of it... he didn’t really do anything.” – C [21:58]
  • “Super inbred.” – D [23:01]

• Pop Culture:

  • “All sorts of house parties and even home decor suddenly became King Tut themed. That’s so random, innit? We don't need much, do we?” – C [24:18]

• Final Note:

  • “Maybe one day we will all get the curse that we want.” – C [31:10]

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Timeline & Timestamps

• 03:44–05:14: Howard Carter’s life & lead-in to Egyptology
• 06:25–07:56: Saqqara Affair & partnership with Carnarvon
• 09:07–10:10: Final excavation efforts, context of 1922 Egypt
• 11:02–13:06: The find: uncovering the tomb, telegram to Carnarvon, first entry
• 16:15–19:04: Exploring the tomb—rooms, treasures, and Tut’s remains
• 21:58–23:28: Tutankhamun’s biography and his relative obscurity
• 24:18–24:42: Tut-mania and 1920s pop culture craze
• 25:44–27:50: The birth and spread of the "curse," Herbert’s death
• 28:41–29:43: Debunking the curse, actual deadly tomb and toxic mold
• 31:00–31:18: Wrap-up, tongue-in-cheek hope for a juicier curse story

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Style & Tone

The hosts balance dark humor and skepticism (“That’s no curse,” “Super inbred”) with historical depth and vivid storytelling. Memorable banter and sly commentary inject personality, while quotes from Carter and wry asides about Tut’s health problems and the mechanics of superstition keep the tone both informative and irreverent.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode offers a brisk, witty overview of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, contextualizing the find, clarifying the real story behind the so-called curse, and explaining the unlikely fame of a forgotten boy king. Whether you want fun facts, mythbusting, or just a dose of dark British humor, RedHanded’s take on “Tutankhamun’s Curse” delivers both chills and chuckles—no supernatural retribution required.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

What up? It's Drewski. I told bet if I'm hosting, we gonna do this my way. Sunday, June 28th at 8, 7 Central. Let them know. BET Awards 2026 got a monster lineup with must see performances. Plus we're honoring the Living legend icon Ms. Lauryn Hill with the tribute Fit for a queen. It's culture's biggest night hosted by your boy Drew Ski. Oh, y' all already know it's finna get crazy. BET Awards 2026 live Sunday, June 28 at 8, 7 Central. Visit BET.com for more info.

[C]

Hello?

[D]

Hel.

[C]

Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

[D]

I'm so excited.

[C]

I'm pretty excited as well.

[D]

There's nothing I love more than a big fucking olden timey scary pasto Egyptian.

[C]

And that's exactly what we've got for you. And we're gonna kick off with a quote that I'm gonna read to you. With trembling hands, I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner. Darkness and blank space as far as an iron testing rod could reach showed that whatever lay beyond was empty, not filled like the passage we'd just cleared. Candle tests were applied as a precaution against possible foul gases. And then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in. Lord Kavanan, Lady Evelyn and Calendar standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first, I could see nothing. The hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker. But presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist. Strange animals, statues, and gold. Everywhere the glint of gold. Those are the words of Howard Carter, the man responsible for the greatest archaeological find in history. The tomb of Tutankhamun, Pharaoh, God, king and child, ruler of the eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. But almost as soon as the discovery was made, rumours started swirling in the press that the tomb was never meant to be found and that everyone involved was in danger of the curse of Tutankhamun. And then a few months later, the expedition's main financial backer was found dead. And as for what killed him. If you believe the rumours, it was the little pharaoh himself, claiming revenge against those who had disturbed his body. And this is the shorthand.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Now, before we get into the really exciting stuff about pharaohs and their curses, we need to set the scene. Who was Howard Carter? Well, in a refreshing turn of events for us at Red Handed, he seems to have been a pretty decent man.

[C]

Oh, that's nice.

[D]

It is nice.

[C]

It's nice that when that happens.

[D]

Yeah. Born in 1874, Carter was the youngest of 11 siblings and the son of artist and illustrator Samuel John Carter and his wife, Martha. Despite coming from relative affluence, Howard Carter didn't really receive much of a formal education, probably because he was the youngest of 11 and he was mostly into art and adventure. As a teenager, Howard was a regular visitor to Didlington Hall, a mansion owned by the wealthy Amherst family.

[C]

And Sean Combs. No, I'm kidding.

[D]

Oh, right.

[C]

It's because his nickname's the Diddler. Oh, right.

[D]

I just thought he'd bought this.

[C]

No, no, no, no, no. He's in jail.

[D]

That's true. This family, the Amherst family, Not Sean Combs, though maybe he is. They were known to be collectors of Egyptian antiquities, and this sparked a curiosity into all things ancient and Egyptian for the young Howard Carter. And when he showed his considerable artistic talent to Lady Amherst, she organised for him to be sent to Egypt to help a family friend excavate and record archaeological finds.

[C]

Saying he showed his considerable artistic talent to Lady Amherst makes it sound like he flashed her unconfirmed. Don't fact check.

[D]

Lady Amherst's artist flasher.

[C]

By the age of 25, Carter had been appointed Inspector of Monuments of Upper Egypt for the Egyptian Antiquities Service and he was instrumental in the exploration of the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is every bit as exciting as it sounds. It's a set of valleys and hills in Luxor in northern Egypt in which the new kingdom of Ancient Egypt buried its leaders and high ranking officials. As Inspector of Monuments, Carter revolutionised archaeology by introducing a new systematic method of exploration, as well as improving the protection of excavated ruins and making them more accessible to archaeologists. Carter kept this prestigious appointment for five whole years until the Saqqara Affair, which, despite its romantic name, was actually a messy, violent confrontation between a group of French tourists in the Valley of the Kings and the Egyptian guards who were employed to protect the.

[D]

The tourists were being disrespectful to both the archaeological sites they were visiting and the guards themselves. Although it's not explicitly Noted, it's widely assumed that the tourists were being racist towards the Egyptian guards. When they couldn't have their way and things turned violent, the French government got involved. Howard Carter backed the guards in the official investigation and he ended up unemployed in Egypt for several years. So with nothing else to do, Carter sold watercolours and sketches on the Valley of the Kings just to make ends meet.

[C]

If you're waiting for me to make a derisive comment about French people, I'm not taking the bait. Luckily for Carter and archaeology on the whole, he didn't stay unemployed forever. In 1907, Carter was recommended to George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Herbert was wealthy and obsessed with Ancient Egypt, so the pair struck up a partnership, working together to hunt down and excavate tombs across Egypt. The pair were responsible for some considerable finds, and Carter's dedication to preservation means that many of those pieces are still viewable to this day. But by 1922, the pair had been working together for 15 years and the discoveries were dwindling. There was a growing sentiment across the archaeological community that everything that could be found in the Valley of the Kings had been found already.

[D]

There was actually some pretty sound reasoning behind this conclusion. Archaeologists had a reasonably good idea of the lineage of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, especially in the New Kingdom, which was the time when the Valley of the Kings was used, and they were pretty sure that they tracked down tombs for all of them. Plus, it wasn't just modern day explorers tracking down and carefully chronicling these tombs. Tomb raiders had been ransacking them for centuries. Still, Howard Carter did have a hunch that there might be one more tomb lurking down there somewhere. Tutankhamun wasn't a particularly well known name within Egyptology at the time. His burial had actually already been accounted for quite some time ago, but it had never quite satisfied Carter. At a previous site, some ceremonial offerings had been found with Tutankhamun's name inscribed on them, but they'd never found a body. For the wider community, this was enough to call it a day. But Carter suspected this wasn't everything that had been laid down for the pharaoh.

[C]

Regardless, George Herbert was ready to pull the plug on any more excavations. He'd spent a fortune over the last decades and the fines weren't coming in as hot and fast as they once had. However, Howard Carter convinced him to give him one more year or a season in Egypt. And they called them seasons, because Egypt is really, really hot, so you can only dig for a small portion of the year. Carter had Systematically gone over almost the entirety of the Valley of the Kings, in some cases more than once. But he was a completionist and there was one last sight that they hadn't looked into. A collection of ruined huts that had been used by ancient Egyptian labourers. The ones who built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Wasn't much, but it was worth a look. And it's a testament to the long standing friendship between the two men that Herbert agreed to finance Carter's one last season so that Carter could leave feeling satisfied. Egypt completed

[D]

Carter's final season. The Valley of the Kings began earlier than normal on 1st November 1922. A lot had changed over the 16 years that he'd been working with Herbert. For a start, Egypt was now an independent country. This wasn't a big deal for Carter. He got on well with his Egyptian peers. In fact, he'd lost his job to back them. However, it did make archaeology in Egypt a lot more complicated than when it had been under British occupation. Mostly because Egypt wanted to keep a proportion of what was found, which is fair enough. The other big challenge was Egypt had done a great job of bolstering its economy with tourism, which made excavations a lot more difficult. And that was one of the reasons that they'd started their season off so early.

[C]

Pretty quickly into this final excavation, Howard Carter's feeling that there was more to be found was validated. On 4 November, a stone step was found near the ancient workers huts. Some say that this step was found by a worker on the dig. Others say it was found by an Egyptian boy who was playing nearby. Either way, it was a big deal. The step was unearthed and another step was found. Then another, and so on, until a stone staircase was revealed that led down to the entrance of a tomb. From the outside, this tomb was not all that remarkable. It was smaller than you would expect for a pharaoh, more likely for some sort of dignitary instead, or a boy king who doesn't need that much room. Actually the tomb seemed so unimportant that it had been covered thousands of years ago when workers building another tomb had just chucked dirt over the entrance. And that dirt chucking had kept it hidden for about 3,000 years.

[D]

Once the plaster door was fully uncovered, Carter cut a small hole and peered through. On the other side was a big pile of rubble. Not exactly what he'd been hoping for, but it looked interesting enough to warrant a look. So he ordered the staircase to be covered and sent a telegram to Herbert in the UK asking him to get over their pronto because it was the olden times, Anuba hadn't been invented yet. It took Herbert 19 days to arrive, by which point Carter had recruited another of his friends to come along. This man was called Arthur Callender and he was always on time. In reality, the only reason we're including Arthur is a to make that joke and b because Carter mentions him in that opening paragraph. And we didn't want you to think that we'd missed out someone important.

[C]

George Herbert finally arrived with his daughter, Lady Evelyn in tow, and Carter's team began to unearth the entrance to the tomb once again. A closer inspection of the plaster door revealed an inscription. Tutankhamun. Curtis Hunch had been right.

[A]

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[B]

It's Drewski. I told bet if I'm hosting we gonna do this my way. Sunday June 28th at 87 Central. Let em know. BET Awards 2026 got a monster lineup with must see performances plus we're honoring the L legend icon Ms. Lauryn Hill with the tribute Fit for a Queen, it's culture's biggest night, hosted by your boy Drew Ski. Oh, y' all already know it's gonna get crazy. BET Awards 2026 live, Sunday, June 28 at 8, 7 Central. Visit BET.com for more info.

[D]

When I got a new car, I thought my insurance premium would increase and empty my bank account, like if a tween won the lottery.

[C]

I've invested most of my winnings in chicken tenders because they're bonded. But bro, I bought a house and it's sick, bro. I'm thinking the floor is gonna be all trampoline, bro. With a helipad on the roof. The contractor said it's structurally unsound. They're just being babies.

[D]

But switching to Geico saved me hundreds, so my bank account is safe.

[B]

It feels good to save some hard earned cash. It feels good to Geico.

[C]

That day, they broke through the first plaster door and entered a corridor filled with rubble and a loose collection of artefacts. It sort of looked like it had been used as some kind of dump. But past the dump, they found a second door. Carter once again created a peephole in the plaster and looked through it. And that's when he gave the description I read to you at the beginning. Strange animals, statues and gold. Everywhere, the glint of gold.

[D]

This second room, known as the antechamber, acted as a gateway to further rooms behind and was filled with Tutankhamun's most prized possessions. The most famous items are the wheels of several war chariots, a paper fan which depicted the pharaoh hunting, and several couches whose wooden structures had been carved into the shape of a hippo, a lion and a cow. A quick Google will bring up these pictures taken before anyone entered the antechamber, showing the stacks of possessions as they had been left for over 3,000 years. In total, there were 700 objects within the antechamber, making it one of the biggest finds in Egyptian archaeology.

[C]

And things were just getting started. Coming off from the antechamber were two doors. One was open, the other was closed. The open one led to a room that we now call the annex, which was filled with about 280 items. Most of this stuff was for Tutankhamun to enjoy in the afterlife. Stuff like food, drinks, oils, board games, all of the stuff he would need to be happy. On the other side, the room had clearly been accessed by grave robbers, but none from this century or the last or the one before that. As you can imagine, any culture that puts its noble dead in big rooms full of gold and valuables, will always have an issue with looting. Tutankhamun's tomb had been looted at least once, but only for small objects like golden game pieces about 3,000 years ago. And since then, it had laid intact.

[D]

A few days later, the team breached the second door and this was the moment that their dreams really came true. Behind it was the pharaoh's burial chamber, with its walls covered in intricate paintings of Tutankhamun chatting with the gods and being welcomed into the afterlife. In the centre was a shrine which Carter hoped to God contained a mummy. He'd actually been stung before opening a sarcophagus at a dinner party which he hoped would impress his guests, only to find nothing inside. That would be very embarrassing, very, very anticlimactic.

[C]

I am the primo Egyptologist.

[D]

Nothing? Oh, I'm just like, yeah, I guess they're quite heavy, so you might not be able to tell that it was empty as well. Oh, God. However, this time, luckily for Carter, Tutankhamun shrine was almost completely intact. It consisted of four nesting wooden boxes. And within this was a carved box of quartzite, AKA the sarcophagus. Within that were three nesting coffins. And within that was the mummy of Tutankhamun. His mummy was adorned with a golden death mask, which has now become not just a symbol of the pharaoh, but of ancient Egypt and in some ways, the study of history itself. Fun fact. The mask does not actually depict Tutankhamun himself, but the God of the afterlife, Osiris. It's also inscribed with a spell from the Book of the Dead, as if

[C]

it couldn't get any more exciting for Carter, there was still one more room behind the burial chamber. The treasury. As its name might suggest, this room was filled with the final and most valuable things that Tutankhamun would need in the great beyond. Along with his vital organs in Canopic jars contained within an enormous golden shrine, plus 22 wooden boats all pointing west, ready to take him across to the great beyond. Guarding this room was a life sized statue of the jackal God, Anubis. I've seen a picture of this and the like caption of it was like, oh, the jackal as discovered by Carter as they opened the tomb. But it's like wearing a little cape and I don't know whether they're just like, just keep you safe, Mr. Jackal God. Or if it gets cold, maybe it

[D]

was just broken and they were like, stick a cape on there, maybe. So all of this was and still is the single most important find in the History of the study of ancient Egypt may even be the most important find in history itself. It remains the only intact Egyptian tomb ever found. Why? Well, to understand that we need to first talk a bit about who Tutankhamun was. The short answer is he wasn't that important. He was most likely the son of the much more revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhnakhton was responsible for massive social reforms in ancient Egypt and converted his empire to the monotheistic worship of the God Aten. This was massive at the time because polytheism was an essential part of ancient Egyptian culture and it secured the pharaohs role as a God king. So basically the pharaohs didn't rule by divine right, nor were they the mouthpiece of God. They were the gods themselves.

[C]

So that meant when Akhenaten died, a lot of people wanted their old beliefs back, especially those who just lost quite a lot of religious power. Enter the nine year old club footed Tutankhamun, who we think is Akhenaten's son by some sort of minor wife. That wasn't that important. After ascending to power and under the heavy influence of his advisors, the young pharaoh brought back the polytheistic worship that everyone knew and loved. And to be brutally honest, that is kind of it. And there will be Egypt fanatics who'll say that his life was a lot more interesting and it was in the sense that he was a pharaoh and that's pretty great. But he didn't really do anything. He did have a wife and an enormous litany of health problems, including a club foot, a cleft palate, a severe underbite, one or potentially several genetic disorders and potentially developmentally disabled as well.

[D]

I mean, super inbred. Yeah, super inbred.

[C]

And at 19 he died. We don't really know of what, but being that inbred is pretty difficult. And probably some kind of infection took him out.

[D]

Yeah, because like yes, mine are wife, so maybe it wasn't his dad's sister, but like nine times out of ten it was.

[C]

And you know there's generations of sister brother marriages that go before him.

[D]

One non blood related minor wife isn't going to solve all those problems. Now all this might sound a little bit harsh, but it is exactly his unimportance that has led Tutankhamun to being so important today. Just ask Khufu Khafre Amenko. Those three pharaohs had the great pyramids built as their tombs. Now building a 450 foot polished white triangle with a gold tip, that's the tallest building on Earth for several thousands of years is indeed a great legacy, but it is also quite conspicuous. As a result, the pyramids were of course, pillaged to high heaven long before even Jesus could have a look. Whereas for Tutankhamun, his tomb was only robbed once. They barely took anything interesting.

[C]

Still though, this find was an international sensation and Tutamania swept the globe. All sorts of house parties and even home decor suddenly became King Tut themed. That's so random, innit? We don't need much, do we? You gotta love it.

[D]

You gotta love how simple we are. I love that. So like in the mid-20s, everyone's just throwing King Tut parties?

[C]

It would seem so. Wow. And with the new ancient celebrity came ancient celebrity accusations, namely the Pharaoh's curse. We all do it. You have a night for yourself, but don't like the sound of the silence, so you turn on the TV just for the ambiance. It's a little trick that helps you feel like you've got company and aren't alone. And other insurers, well, they may make you feel alone, but when you switch to Geico, you've got claims reps available around the clock. So whenever you need, you'll have people around to help. And let's turn on the washing machine just for good measure. Isn't that soothing?

[B]

It feels good to have support. It feels good to Geico La Playa can sound like. For others it's. But this, this is our Playa. Corona La Playa awaits. Relax, responsibly. Corona Extra Beer, imported by Crown Import, Chicago, IL.

[C]

For as long as people have been digging up people's tombs, there have been rumors of curses. Whether it's a Viking one, a Saxon one, an ancient Greek one, or an ancient Egyptian one. And to be fair, in the old kingdom of ancient Egypt, curses were often written on tomb doors to try and stop people from looting them. It really isn't more complicated than that. But because we're in the know, we all realize that King Tut was a New Kingdom pharaoh. So his tomb did not have any curses written on it at all. But that didn't stop the press as soon as it was common knowledge that on the day that Carter had first opened the tomb, he had sent a messenger boy up to his house. And when that boy arrived, he found that a cobra had broken into Carter's birdcage and eaten his canary. And obviously, if you need it spelling out, the cobra is a long standing symbol of the pharaoh, but also, he is in Egypt.

[D]

Yep, with a fucking canary on Show?

[C]

Well, one would assume he's taking it into caves with him.

[D]

Left it at home that day. Well, quite keep him safe from the cobras. But as we hinted towards the beginning of this episode, it doesn't end there, because four months after they'd breached the walls of Tut's tomb, George Herbert upped and died naturally. This pushed the rumors of the pharaoh's curse into overdrive, because so far the death toll had just been one canary. And the British press swirled with both supernatural and scientific explanations for Herbert's death. Obviously, the supernatural explanation was the curse, which is clearly bollocks. But some of the scientific explanations did hold some water, most notably the suggestion that some kind of bacteria or poison had been hidden in the tomb to attack and kill anyone who entered. Unfortunately, though, as fun as this sounds, it isn't quite true. In reality, Herbert snagged a mosquito bite while shaving and died of a resulting infection. Although rumour has it that King Tut's body also had a scar in the same exact spot on his face.

[C]

Good enough for me, honestly. Sold. Following Herbert's death, the rumours of a supposed curse continued and various other deaths were chalked up to Tutankhamun's wrath. In total, about 17 deaths have been accounted to the curse. That's 17 people and one canary. But the four most high profile are these. George Day Gould, a tourist who visited the dig site and died shortly afterwards in the French Riviera, having contracted a fever whilst in Egypt. Then Arthur Mace, a member of the excavation team, who died of pleurisy and pneumonia in 1928, four years after entering the tomb. Then Richard Bell, Howard Carter's secretary, who died on 15 November 1929, seven years after entering the tomb.

[D]

Is this basically just anyone who died?

[C]

Yes, it does seem like that. His death is interesting, but not for Egypt reasons. It's because he died suspiciously in a Mayfair nightclub. And then finally, Howard Carter, who died a whopping 16 years after first poking a hole in that plaster door on 2 March 1939, having fully cemented his legacy as possibly the most influential archaeologist in the history of the world.

[D]

That's quite a long time after he found it. It is. And it was the 1920s. When he pokes his hole in that particular tomb and he dies in 1939, I'm gonna guess that the average life expectancy was not super high. How old do you think he was when he died? I've got it in front of me. It's not like it's quite Yarrow Karten. Yeah. 54, 64.

[C]

Oh, come on.

[D]

1939. I'm like, that's no curse.

[C]

And he's been fucking in Egypt grand malaria for his entire career.

[D]

I feel like he did all right. So, yes, his death is a bit of a damp squib, which is a bit of a letdown. But wait, what if we finished you off with a case where a tomb really did kill some people? Carol Wotcher Tyler, AKA the future Pope John Paul ii, authorized the opening of the tomb of Casimir IV and his wife Elizabeth of Austria. Of the 12 men who opened the tomb, 10 of them died prematurely over the next three years. That's more like it. Right? And it was all to do with Aspergelius Flavus. Sounds cursey enough to me. But while that might sound like a spell, it's actually just a fungus that produces a highly carcinogenic toxin. This fungus had been lurking inside the tomb and was inhaled by the team as they prized it open. Was it put there deliberately? We'll never know. But probably not.

[C]

Well, I want to believe so.

[D]

Believe

[C]

so.

[D]

That is it, guys. That is the story. I mean, it's very exciting that they found the tomb, but the curse. Probably less exciting when you find out he died fucking ages later.

[C]

Yeah, bit of a bummerino. But, you know, maybe one day we will all get the curse that we want.

[D]

We can only dream. And until then, we'll just have to keep covering ones like this. We'll see you next week for a different episode.

[C]

Look upon my works, you mighty, and despair.

[D]

There you go.

[C]

And then I'll see you next week after you've done despairing.

[B]

Foreign.

[A]

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[B]

When I scraped my car in that parking garage, I was worried that it could be a long process to take care of it. Like a landscaper's first day trimming a hedge maze.

[C]

I have definitely already been here.

[D]

Now, was it left, right or right left.

[B]

Well, maybe I'll cut a path out and find my way back later. But it wasn't like that that. I filed a claim in under two minutes on the Geico app and they handled it from there. It was taken care of almost as quickly as it happened. It feels good to get help quick. It feels good to Geico most of the time. Lapla sounds like this. For some, La Playa also sounds like this. But no matter what, this is our Playa Corona. La Playa awaits. Relax responsibly. Corona Extra beer. Imported by Crown Import, Chicago, Illinois.