Perhaps, the power of a curse is in the mind of the person who believes in it. Howard Carter, the man who actually opened the tomb, never believed in the curse and lived to a reasonably old age of 66 before dying of entirely natural causes. There's a postscript to this story. In 1999 a German microbiologist, Gotthard Kramer, from the University of Leipzig, suggested that there might be some scientific truth to the stories of a curse. He analyzed 40 mummies and identified several potentially dangerous mold spores on each.
Mold spores are tough and can survive thousands of years even in a dark, dry tomb.
Although most are harmless, a few can be toxic. Kramer thinks that when tombs were first opened and fresh air gusted inside, these spores could have been blown up into the air. All Rights Reserved.