It’s been a a difficult 24 hours for many people, but no matter what the outcome, what everyone really needs to do is to stop and take a deep breath. Some people meditate. Others take a few minutes to look at something completely different. I’ve been looking for a five minute “no election” post. Let’s try this. Ninety-eight years ago today, Howard Carter found King Tut’s tomb—one of the world’s best kept secrets for 3250 years.
Tutankhamun (1342-1325 BC) was the last king of the 18th Dynasty, becoming king at age 8 or 9 after the death of his extremely controversial father, King Akhetetem. He had demanded that a new God, Aten, be the only God throughout Egypt. That caused confusion throughout the country, and massive upheaval among the priests and nobles. His son immediately returned everyone to polytheism, reconstructed statues, restored monuments and allowed all former festivals. The former King’s massive upheaval had also caused seriously economic issues, leaving the child Tutankhamun and his counselors to deal with issues both diplomatically and militarily, with campaigns in Nubia.
While Tut’s tomb contains body armor and campaign stools, it is unlikely that he rode into battle himself. CT scans done in 2005 and additional tests done at the same time have shown that Tut was about 5’6″ tall with a cleft hard palate and mild scoliosis. He was also missing at least one, possibly several, bone from his right foot and had a clubbed left foot, explaining why there were canes for him in his tomb. He also had numerous bouts of a severe strain of malaria. It appears that his death was due to his frail health, another bout of malaria, and a fall which caused a compound fracture of his left leg. Current thinking suggests that it was not due to foul play. While a few kings were placed in pyramids, many more were placed in tombs in the Valley of the Kings. And that’s where King Tut spent the following 3250 years.
Fast forward 3200 years. Howard Carter was born in Britain on March 9, 1874. His father was a talented artist and Howard also developed serious creativity. In 1891, when he was just 17, he joined the Egypt Expedition Fund to help catalogue and assist with the excavation of Egyptian tombs found around Beni Hasan. In 1894 he moved to Deir el-Baharia to record reliefs in the temple of Hatshepsut. By 1899 Carter became the Inspector of Monuments of Upper Egypt for the Egyptian Antiquities Service, based in Luxor, and four years later he moved to Lower Egypt where he developed the grid-block system to logically look for additional tombs. He returned to Deir el-Baharia in 1907 working for George Edward Herbert, Lord Carnarvon, who was financially backing the excavations of noble tombs around Thebes. Carter started working in the Valley of the Kings in 1914, but everything stopped that September with the outbreak of World War I.
During the War, Carter worked as a diplomatic courier and translator, but got back to his work at the end of 1917. However, by 1922, things had not been going well, and Carnarvon decided that he would only fund one more year of work in the Valleys of the Kings. In early November 1922, Carter’s crew was moving some debris . On the 4th, one of the water-boys slipped and when Carter went to see what had happened, he realized that he was standing at the top of a flight of stairs. He carefully dug out most of the steps till he found himself looking at mud-plastered door, with a cartouche stamped on it. He carefully refilled the staircase and sent a telegraph to Carnarvon telling him that they might have found something intriguing. Carnarvon arrived on the 23th, and on November 26, he and Carter went down the steps. With a small chisel and a candle they were able to see a jumble of gold and ebony implements. Most of the time, thieves had found, and robbed ,many of the tombs. To see something in such pristine condition was stunning.
There was a massive amount of work required, so Carter asked members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, who were then working in a different area of the Valley of the Kings, to help. They leapt at the change, and were particularly helpful in photographing all the items. It took over four months to catalogue all the artifacts in the first room. Finally, on February 16, 1923, Carter opened the second door. It was a sealed room with two statues standing guard—King Tut’s actual tomb! The pieces in the first space looked like trinkets compared to the artifacts in the main room, particularly the astonishing sarcophagus. It took over ten years to catalogue all the items, finally finishing the last details in February 1932. It had been Carter’s life’s work. With that, he retired, spending summers in London and winters in Egypt, dying in London on March 2, 1939.
Over the years, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has worked tirelessly to preserve the stunning materials. Over the past ten years, in conjunction of the Getty Conservation Institute, the Egyptians have done tremendous work in preventing further wear, tear, decay and degradation, preserving Tutankhamum for posterity.
Historical Lense 