A classic Hollywood story tells of a modern, but not too modern, archaeologist exploring an ancient Egyptian tomb, while more nefarious characters tag along just to rob these ancient graves of the treasures wealthy Egyptians were buried with. Nothing good can come of that scenario, since there is a curse associated with this tomb. But that's fiction, and was inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb with all its fabulous treasures in 1922. The real story of Egyptian grave robbing goes back to antiquity.
See, the reason the discovery of King Tut's tomb was such a sensation was because of the surviving burial goods. Other tombs didn't have so many valuable treasures because they'd already been plundered, often soon after burial. An upper-class or royal burial required the work of many people, like stonecutters, builders, craftsmen, undertakers, security guards, and an awful lot of porters. These workers were often quite poor, and saw no reason not to help themselves to buried goods. One of the ways Egyptians tried to protect these tombs was by attaching a curse, so thousands of years later, we have a ready-made horror film plot. Read the history of the wholesale plunder of Egyptian tombs at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Mark Fischer)
