"Can you see anything?"

 "Yes, wonderful things."

~Howard Carter

100 years ago today explorer Howard Carter made the discovery of the ages when he finally came upon the first step leading to the sealed tomb of the boy king, Tutankhamun after searching for many years in the Valley of the Kings.  It is still to this day the only tomb to be discovered nearly fully still intact.

 

I have just two subjects that I love to read about and that's Housewifery and Ancient Egypt.  I have been waiting for a decade for this 100 year anniversary.  I knew, just knew, that 2022 was going to see a resurgence in Egyptian inspired everything...fashion, knick knacks, travel, books, movies, lunchboxes...all of it.  Kinda like how 1976 blew up with bicentennial stuff.  And then, here we are.  Barely a peep.  The damn google image is "celebrating" a rice dish.

Well, I am still going to do my part.

Here are some images and info tidbits:

It wasn't actually until November 26, 1922 that Howard Carter could peer into the chamber to see those wonderful things. This is what he first saw:

The layout of the tomb:

Howard Carter and his team spent a decade cataloging and preserving all the artifacts.  During the early days of excavation it was very Indiana Jones like.  There weren't a lot of rules or process to preserve.  The treasure finder paid a fee to the Antiquities department for the right to excavate a chosen area for a set amount of time, what ever the explorer found they got to keep half!  Once Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut the department did a huge turn around and had to settle with Carter.  At one point the tensions and pressure were so high that the coffin holding the mummy hung suspended for a year before Carter would/could come back to finish the excavation.  I have seen many modern "news" reports trying to claim Howard Carter as an artifact thief when the case is that the rules were changed on him abruptly.  For decades explorers got to keep their finds and then the officials got greedy.  I mean, sure, I agree that the artifacts should be in museums but in the 1920s (and the 1800s) things weren't that way.

Look up mummy unwrapping parties during the Victorian time if you really want to read about something to be upset about.

The burial chamber as it is in present day.

But back to parties, I planned a little celebration to honor today with a mummy themed dinner and desert!  Kinda Halloween spooky, silly but that's how I roll.

Crescent Roll Wrapped Meatloaf Mummy

(Make your favorite meatloaf and wrap cut strips of crescent roll mummy style, black olives for eyes, bake at meatloaf instructions)

Garlic Mummy French Bread

(French rolls brushed with butter, garlic, wrapped with strips of string cheese, black olives for eyes, then toasted)

Mummy Cupcakes

(just make cupcakes...)

For the past 100 years the artifacts from King Tut's tomb have been touring the world going to different museums in various groups of items.  This is probably a good thing because from the looks of it the current museum in Egypt is unfit to house such treasures.  However a new huge proper complex is under construction (The Grand Egyptian Museum) has been under construction for the past 10+ years.  It was originally going to open in 2013 and then there were financial set backs, in 2018 a fire of unknown origin happened, then it was set to open in 2020 but Covid, then the plan was to open in 2022 for the anniversary with all of the tomb's treasures together for the first time in 100 years, but again something fell through...or maybe it is the mummy's curse?