David Long- Tutankhamun’s Treasure Bookbuzz Blog

One of the things I like most about being an author is that I get to write stories which really interest me. Tutankhamun’s Treasure is an example of this because the story of how his lost tomb was discovered has fascinated me for almost my entire life. 

I’m old enough to remember the first time the boy-pharaoh’s spectacular treasures came to London and I’ve never forgotten the excitement of going to see them. I still have a book I bought on a school trip to the British Museum, and more than 100 years after the discovery it still thrills me to turn the pages. 

I was only ten or eleven when it was all over the news and from the start I was desperate to go to the exhibition. Newspapers carried pictures of thousands of people queuing down the street to the museum and this became the school trip my class all wanted to go on. 

For most it was the sight of the young king’s solid gold funeral mask that really captured the imagination. But the mask was only one of hundreds of exhibits and, for me, the way they were discovered was as exciting as the priceless treasures themselves. 

Carter and Carnarvon, the real-life heroes of my book, didn’t know where to look for the tomb, what they might find – or even if they’d find nothing at all. Most Egypt experts thought they were wasting their time, and in the end (well, very near the end) they almost gave up before finding anything. Carter’s desert digs had taken him years and years, and they had cost Lord Carnarvon the equivalent of a million pounds. In 1922, Carter was given one last chance to find the tomb but was told that if he failed he would have to give up and go home because there was simply no more money left. 

He was naturally desperate to find something, anything, and then, just as he and his team of diggers were about to leave Egypt for good, they struck gold – literally. 

I’ve written a lot of books about a lot of different adventures but I find it hard to think of anything more exciting to write about than that magical day. Carter and Carnarvon’s story continues to amaze me because, although archaeologists have been exploring this part of the Egyptian desert for centuries, Tutankhamun’s mummy is still the onlyone ever discovered with all its treasures. For most people it’s the most amazing treasure they’ll ever see, and for many archaeologists it’s the most important discovery ever made. 

Even now people still want to see the funeral mask more than anything else. But in many ways it isn’t the most amazing thing that came out of the tomb. Tutankhamun was only a teenager when he died but he was buried with thousands of incredible things–so many that it took Carter several months just to get them out and list them. For me, these other items are just as interesting as the gold mask because, decades later, they help us learn more about Tutankhamun and about his extraordinary empire. 

Two tiny mummies found in the tomb, for example, suggest that he had children that noone knew about before. Scientists examining Tutankhamun’s mummy have also been able to discover that he had some medical problems. He needed special shoes, and had 130 different walking sticks, but we still don’t know why he died so young. 

Elsewhere in the tombsome wonderful pictures show how rich Egyptians enjoyed hunting ostriches. We know they loved exotic things and that one of Tutankhamun’s strangest possessions – and a favourite of mine –was a dagger made of metal from a meteorite that was several billion years old. We know too that ancient Egyptians liked to have fun at home because the tomb contained board games made of carved ivory and musical instruments called sistrums. The pharaoh also had some boomerangs which he may have used to bring down birds as he sailed down the immense River Nile. 

Things like these may not be as flashy as the golden mask (or Tutankhamun’s solid gold bed) but they are just as valuable and just as fascinating for the archaeologists and historians trying to understand how life was lived in this corner of Africa more than 3,000 years ago.  

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