Walk Like an Egyptian

On this day in 1922, some three or so weeks after the steps to what seemed a possibly significant archaeological find were discovered, Howard Carter was able to create a “tiny breach in the top left hand corner” of what proved to be the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen.

This would lead to the second great Egyptian fad in Western culture, at least equaling the first when Napoleon’s army brought back home literally tons upon tons of loot, including their stupendous discovery of what we call the Rosetta stone. The equal referring to the fad not the level of archaeological significance.

Not that this wasn’t something. This time around it was the funerary cache of a minor king, but the first ever found undisturbed by grave robbers.

And what a cache! It immediately became obvious why no previous cache had been left untouched, despite threats of eternal damnation and rather nasty introductions to hell on this side…

And, my, how it sparked the imagination to both deeper matters of life and death, of ancient cultures, and right up along side it, the deeply silly…

And downhill from there…

But there is something rather spectacular in all this, and that, hopefully, can be recalled, as well…