- “A Profecia ou O Mistério da Morte de Tut-Ank-Amon” (1924) de Fernando de Carvalho Henriques. Ecos literários em Portugal da descoberta do túmulo de Tutankhamon

Abstract

In the scope of our research on the field of the Reception of Antiquity in Portugal dedicated to the identification, gathering and analysis of news and articles concerning the discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamon publish between 1922 and 1939 on the Portuguese newspapers and magazines, we come across a novel published in Lisbon in 1924, written by Fernando de Carvalho Henriques entitled A Profecia ou O Misterio da Morte de Tut-Ank-Amon. The main storyline of the novel (developed in the chapters I, VI-XIV), the author fit in a story (in the chapters II-IV) about “antiquity facts” to which he used “historical knowledge” about the ancient Egypt of the period of Tutankhamon, inspired by the late discovery of the tomb of that Egyptian pharaoh (KV 62) by Howard Carter in western Luxor, officially dated 4th of November of 1922. Sharing some features with the thriller genre, it is the first novel ever published internationally inspired by the great Egyptian archaeological discovery. We do not know the primary or secondary sources that were used by F. de Carvalho Henriques to write the chapters II to IV of his novel. We do not know his historical readings about the period of Tutankhamon (18th dynasty). We do not know his actual knowledge about all the themes that compose his novel. But we do know one thing: his historical knowledge regarding the ancient Egypt is broadly well sustained, thorough, as we intend to demonstrate, and it prove that the echoes of the distant Egyptian excavations inspired and stimulated the imagination of an illustrious unknown Portuguese, and, through him, his readers.