Hi, this is Suzanne.

And today we unwrapped the rich brown paint popular among the pre-Raphaelite

brotherhood known as mummy brown.

You're listening to the whispering gallery of spooky art stories.

Egypt 1922, the British protectorate over Egypt was terminated and

Egypt was declared to be an independent sovereign state.

This was called the unilateral declaration of Egypt independence.

A new king led the country as the whispering sounds shifted across the doin.

November, 1922, an archeological expedition to the sand swept

valley of the Kings funded by Lord Carnarvon found something remarkable.

Howard Carter and archeologists, along with Lord Carnarvon were the first to see

inside the untouched tomb number cave.

62, which was located low enough to be hidden by debris.

Could this have been why it was still intact?

Carter wrote in his diary with trembling hands, I made a tiny

breach in the upper left-hand corner, widening the hole a little.

I inserted the candle and peered in at first I could see nothing, the hot

air escaping from the chamber causing the candle to flicker presently.

Details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals,

statues, and gold, everywhere.

The Glint of gold for the moment.

And Aternity it.

Must've seen to the other standing by, I was struck dumb with amazement

and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand in suspense any longer

inquired anxiously, can you see any.

It was all I could do to get out the words.

Yes.

Wonderful things.

That's from two-toned common and the Glint of gold diary, 26,

November, 1922 from Wiki quote.org.

This was Carter's record of the first look at the tomb of Pharaoh to tongue

common who ruled during the 18th dynasty dying at the young age of 19.

Not just statues and gold, but there was the boy Kings sarcophagus,

his death mask, and his mommy.

When I was a kid, there was a tour of the treasure found in

Ramsey's tomb in a nearby city.

My parents took me to see it.

People can't seem to get enough of dead ancient Egyptian royalty so much

that they disregard respect for the dead and their customs because people

have got to see this for themselves.

Even though the care in preparing the tombs was not for the

public and was clearly sacred.

Is it possible?

There could be something to the curse of the mummy

in an article by Brian handwork published by national geographic

on January 21st, 2017.

He writes 100 year old folklore and pop culture have perpetuated the.

But opening a mummy's tomb leads to certain death.

Tuts glittering treasures made great headlines, especially

following the opening of the burial chamber on February 16th, 1923.

And so did sensationalistic accounts of the subsequent death of

expedition sponsor Lord Carnarvon.

In reality, Karner Vaughn died of blood poison.

And only six of the 26 people present when the tomb was opened, died within

a decade harder, surely any curses prime target lived until 1939, almost

20 years after the tombs opening.

This came from national geographic.com/distributions/public/amp/history/article/curse

dash.

Dash the dash mummy, maybe king Tut.

Wasn't interested in cursing anybody.

If he had already gotten to where he was intending to go 3000 years ago.

Quote, I read once that the ancient Egyptians had 50 words for sand and the

Eskimos had a hundred words for snow unquote from Brian Andres on goods.

About the sand in Egypt.

This is a quote from chapter 13, coatings on sand grains from Southwestern Egypt by

Faruq Elbaz national air and space museum, Smithsonian institution, Washington, DC.

This was a repository from the Smithsonian, which is S i.edu.

Sounds from the Western desert of Egypt, very considerably in composition,

microscopic studies of samples from various parts of the desert have

revealed that they're composed of at least 40% quartz, various amounts

of Cal Sirius grains, including chalk limestone, dolomite, moral and

calcite, heavy minerals, including Glock night, phosphates oranges.

Shale and gypsum reference to Elbaz and others, 1979 B although these

different minerals cause variations in the overall sound color, it is

nonetheless believed that the color of the quartz grains themselves can be

an indication of the time of exposure and distance from the sound source.

So he Hawaii us is the secretary general of Egypt, Supreme council of antiquities.

Here he is as seen on the PBS special king Tut that was posted

to YouTube by Daryl Kenson starting right around four minutes into the.

This clip is shared under fair use and a world renowned archeologists, the thinking

of ancient Egypt, in my opinion, without that you will never see the pyramids.

It is a belief from the afternoon.

Who made everyone in ancient Egypt to work for the national

portion, the national project was building a pyramid or building.

And as for , he never believed in the curse of the pharaohs.

The monuments were a great big, giant beacon attracting attention

over here, giving directions to potential looters, go here to find

treasure in the valley of the Kings.

Marked by a peak that has the shape of a pyramid tombs were more

hidden despite secrecy and spells.

Some of the tombs were still robbed all of these details

about Egypt, mommies and curses.

Just where am I going with this as mentioned, have you heard of mummy brown?

If your skin is beginning to crawl it's for a good reason.

This is the name of a color of paint.

Couldn't they have just called it sand brown, maybe sand storm town

flooded Nile soil, something else.

Nope.

Mummy is the word for this rich brown paint.

There's no getting around it.

The pigment for mummy brown, AKA Egyptian brown paint was literally.

Made up of ground up Egyptian mummies, both humans and cats who thought this

was a good idea who decided ground up mummies should be considered

pharmaceutical, let alone be blended into paint as pigment, terrible idea.

When Edward Burne Jones a pre-Raphaelite found out the source

of the pigment, he gave his tube of paint, a proper burial in his garden.

Good man.

The paint mommy brown made from mummies was popular in Europe.

In the 18 hundreds.

I have some quotes from the article, a pigment from the depths by our they'll

pull Dena Torres, October 31st, 2013 from Harvard art museums.org quote in 1904.

The London firms see Roberson advertised in the daily mail.

We require a mummy for making color surely a 2000 year old mummy of an Egyptian

Monarch may be used for adorning and noble fresco without giving offense to

the ghost of the departed gentlemen or his descendants would cook 1996, unquote.

It took me a minute to absorb what I had just read.

In fact, I had gone on to other research and had to go back and find.

The laissez-faire in French, let it be attitude or commonly used at least

in the U S or Utah of whatever that scopes the Udu sort of vibe is so

lacking of understanding for the people whose graves were being disturbed and

their bodies turned into an unstapled pigment and sold quote, surely a 2000

year old mummy of an Egyptian Monarch may be used for adorning and noble.

Without giving offense to the ghost of the departed gentlemen

or his descendants unquote.

Wow.

My peeps.

I know we all say things we regret sometimes more than others and

some of these things haunt us.

Maybe this was one of those instances.

I wonder what people would have done if their own cemeteries had

become the target of a paint making from when they ran out of money.

So, what is the paint actually made of?

This is from the same article quote, rich pigment varying in Hugh from

burnt to raw umber made primarily from white pitch, Mer and ground up

ancient Egyptians and their pets.

So beyond horrible and from time magazine about why they stopped making it.

No, this is a quote from as recent, a time as 1964.

C Roberson discontinued mummy brown in 1964, managing director Jeffrey

Roberson dash park told time magazine.

They had run out of mummies quote.

We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere, but not

enough to make any more paint time.

1964 unquote, I am picking up my poor shocked.

And popping them back into my head.

We have dug up that disturbing story of many desecrated mummies of ancient

Egyptians and their feline friends who were meant to be undisturbed.

It's not just a ghost story, but the terrifying reality of mummy

brown paint, quote, a few odd limbs.

The color mummy brown has a seriously haunting story.

this has been part one on healthy.

From the whispering gallery podcast, I'll be back soon with part two, where

we delve into reds, blues, and other gnarly colors, like green containing

things that are just not good for you.

And remember, keep your flashlights close, but your spooky art stories closer while

in the whispering gallery take care.

And I'll talk to you.