KV54 with hieratic text saying "The good god, Lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheperure [the prenomen of Tutankhamun], beloved of Min. Linen of year 6." Recognizing that KV54 did not represent Tutankhamun's actual tomb, and that it "did" signal the existence of a yet-to-be discovered tomb, archaeologist Howard Carter, who would eventually find the real Tomb of Tutankhamun, corresponded with the Metropolitan's Egyptological Director Herbert Winlock on this subject in 1915. In 1923, Winlock, who had subsequently found similar contents in other excavations throughout the Theban necropolis, instead identified the contents of KV54 not as an actual tomb, but an embalming
Tutankhamun chamber, which was purported to possibly contain a burial of Nefertiti. For many years, rumors of a "curse of the pharaohs" (probably fueled by newspapers seeking sales at the time of the discovery) persisted, emphasizing the early death of some of those who had entered the tomb. The most prominent was George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon who died on 5 April 1923, 5 months after the discovery of the first step leading down to the tomb on 4 November 1922. A study of documents and scholarly sources led "The Lancet" to conclude as unlikely that Carnarvon's death had anything