Doing a Linux on King Tut?

When, in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and his patron, Lord Carnarvon, opened a doorway into a 3500-year old tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, they introduced the world to a boy king whose face, represented by a gilded death mask, would become famous. Tutankhamun had emerged from the mists of history.

Thousands of objects were removed from the tomb and detailed notes, diaries, drawings and photographs taken as excavation progressed. Archived at Oxford University, most of the material has not been properly studied. In order to facilitate the work, Oxford scholars are putting the material on the Internet, expecting to have the entire archive on line in two years.

This is reminiscent of the GNU project for developing the Linux operating system. By making the source code freely available to the public, the GNU unleashed the skills of hackers around the world to improve the system, now used by millions. It was, in effect, a global co-operative. Now a global co-operative will be unleashed on King Tut and his times, revealing to all of us his ancient mysteries.