00:00.00
kinkella
Hello and welcome back to the psudo archeology podcast episode 128 I'm your host Dr Andrew King Kella and we are wrapping up the curse of king tut. So what's there to say at the end of this It's funny so much has been written about this right. You know the curse of King Tut and of course um, this will kind of bastardize itself into the mummy's curse and you sort of wrap it all in like that. What I love about this is Howard Carter himself called this quote Tommy rot.

00:36.89
kinkella
I love the word tommy rot yet another one that we should bring back into modern lingo man what a budget tommy rot did see it works so so Howard Carter himself. Oh and you also hear that. Um. Who knows if this is true or not but in the early days when when Howard Carter was first opening the tomb of course he didn't want people coming in messing with his work breaking in so he himself might have offhandedly said something like oh don't come in here. There's a curse and. Hey if it works it works right? You do whatever you can to keep people away from um, kind of your precious archeological information situation right? Um, and oh after the gym was open Howard Carter did do. Really meticulous, really well done archaeology for the next decade he went nice and slow right? This is not a looted thoughtless plunder of the tomb of King Tuten kaun this is a thought out methodical smart excavation and. And that's one of the main reasons why we have the remains of King Tut and all of his fineries today because Howard Carter and his crew did such a good thoughtful job on this so you got to give it to the guy you know for um, being careful at that time when.

02:06.11
kinkella
He could have been more cowboyish. Um, but he wasn't so go for him. Um, of course after king tut is found. There is a wave of. What we call Egypto Mania and the whole King Tuts Curs Slash mummy's curse is part of this. We also have at that time in american history right? This is when um movies are are really big in the 1920 s and then in the in the. Into the late 20 s and early 30 s you're going to get talking pictures for the first time so movies with audio and big movies of this time are the mummy which is huge. It comes out in the 1930 s it's it's riding the tail end of this wave. Um, you have even like an. Architectural explosion in the early 1920 s due to the king tut find right? you have like in hollywood you have the egyptian theater. It's like what why is there? a place called the egyptian theater in hollywood it's because during this time that idea of ancient Egypt was so huge that it infiltrated. All kinds of pop culture right? So you're so you're watching it in movies you have it in architecture. There's stories about it songs about it right? We can go on and on I mean just the idea of a mummy has become.

03:41.77
kinkella
Like a major trope in hollywood movies right? There's a movie I like to call the mummy that we've all seen and and again it's been remade ever since the 1930 s they remake this thing like every fifteen or twenty years why because it sells because people love this kind of stuff so it's it's that love it's that draw right? that keeps something like King Tut's curse alive. You know what do I think a king tut's curse. Um I think it's fun you know I think it's I think it's just sort of a fun idea um of course we should not take it too seriously, it's I think it's it's fun from like a historic point of view you know and in some ways it's it's. 1 of the first of these I would call them I don't know more modern pseudo archeology stories or pseudo archeology stories based on real events you know instead of just aliens or some phantom flood or something like like this is. A real thing that happened and spawn the sort of pseudo archeology wing of it. Um I don't think it's necessarily again that destructive to our psyche and archeology right? I think it's it's just obviously silly as hell and just kind of fun.

05:10.67
kinkella
You know, especially if you're trying to do a podcast right around halloween.

05:20.55
kinkella
I Guess the downside is when people take it too seriously right? when they take it to heart when they really think there is some sort of curse. Um, because there's just obviously not and so you see what I mean when we break this down sort of back to the beginning. Where it's not that satisfying. You know you want more more slings and arrows more of a plot more of a resolution and it's just like hey this one sick guy died. Ah right? after working on this thing.

05:54.89
kinkella
And then we're just sort of wrapping up some other stuff and trying to shove it in there. You can feel it. It feels last minute you know and so I guess in the end what we want to do with the curse of King Tot is laugh at it and just as importantly, have fun with it which is the best medicine for anything in pseudo archeology and with that I'll see you guys next time.