J.O. Kinnaman J.O. Kinnaman John Ora "J.O." Kinnaman (February 23, 1877 – September 7, 1961) was an American biblical scholar and biblical archaeologist. Born in Bryan, Ohio, Kinnaman graduated from Tri-State College, Indiana in 1894, and received his Ph.D. in Archeology from the University of Rome in 1907. He then accepted a teaching position at Benton Harbor College, where he would be later be made Dean. Kinnaman was one of the 20 people to be on the expedition led by Howard Carter that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, and the last remaining survivor of the expedition. He would later pursue
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