Tutankhamun - Andrew Collins

The tomb of Tutankhamun was undoubtedly among the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time, and everyone knows about the troubles which beset this remarkable find. The untimely death of Lord Carnarvon just after the opening of the tomb, and his appetite for the occult, swiftly gave rise to rumours of a curse. Also the presence of certain art treasures in museums across the United States provides evidence that Howard Carter and his aristocratic patron removed priceless objects from the tomb.;What is not so well known is that among the wonderful treasures Carter and Carnarvon unearthed were also rumoured to be papyri that held the "true account" of the biblical Exodus from Egypt. Why did Carter threaten to reveal this volatile information to the public at a meeting with a British official in Cairo shortly after the discovery of the tomb? At a time when Arab hostility towards Britain's support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine was spilling on to the streets of Jerusalem and Jaffa, such actions on the part of the hot-headed Englishman could have caused untold chaos across the Middle East.;The existence of the controversial papyri and the background to their explosive contents is the subject of this book, which explores the age of Tutankhamun and its relationship with the Biblical Exodus story. It follows the plight of Israel from its captivity at the hands of Pharoah through to the events surrounding the establishment of the modern Jewish state of Israel, covering the Exodus from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan and the origins of the Jewish religion. Not only do these papyri potentially question Israel's rights in Palestine, but the book argues they could have changed world history had their contents been disclosed. Moreover, in the knowledge that Lord Carnarvon exhibited distinct signs of toxic poisoning in his final days, and the fact that he knew full well of the discovery of the papyri, the authors suggest that foul play cannot be ruled out.