Scope: Here we see how Egyptologists search for a lost tomb. Far from the haphazard “dig and hope for a find” seen in movies, careful research in libraries before excavating is the key, followed by careful planning. The backgrounds of the excavators are discussed and the significance of the thousands of artifacts found in the tomb will be presented in the context of Tutankhamen’s life.
Outline
I. The history of the Valley of the Kings is crucial.
A. Diodorus Siculus (first century BC) said priests told him of forty-seven tombs, of which fifteen were visible to him.
B. Richard Pococke (1739), a sea captain, said nine of the tombs could be entered. Some of the tombs were open throughout antiquity.
C. Bonaparte’s savants (1798-1799) recorded sixteen tombs visible, eleven of them open. They discovered the tomb of Amenhotep III and made the first accurate map of the Valley.
D. Giovanni Belzoni (1815-1819), a circus strongman and engineer, was the first “systematic” searcher.
1. Because tombs were chiseled out of mountains, mounds of chips on the ground were his clues.
2. He discovered the tomb of Seti I with its sarcophagus and later held an exhibition in London.
E. At Deir el Bahri, a cache of royal mummies found in 1881 provided missing pharaohs from the Valley—but no Tutankhamen.
F. The tomb of Amenhotep II (1898) yielded more kings—but still no Tutankhamen. In fact, Cleopatra wouldn’t even have heard of Tutankhamen, who turned out to be a “lost pharaoh.”
II. The search for Tutankhamen contains a large cast of characters.
A. Flinders Petrie at Amarna (1890s) found early objects with Tutankhamen’s name on them.
B. Howard Carter, artist-cum-archaeologist, is the central character in the story of Tutankhamen’s discovery.
1. Lady Amherst, a collector of antiquities, sent Carter to Egypt, where he worked for Petrie at Amarna.
2. Carter trained as an artist at Beni Hassan under Percy Newberry.
3. Carter was hired as Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt at age twenty-six. He installed iron gates and lights in several tombs and investigated the robbery of the tomb of Amenhotep II (1901), tracking down the robbers.
C. Theodore Davis, a wealthy American, hired Carter to supervise excavations.
1. One of their finds was the tomb of Tuthmosis IV.
2. Then Carter was transferred to Saqqara and was fired over a political incident in 1904.
D. Edward Ayrton, trained by Petrie, was hired by Davis to replace Carter.
1. Ayrton discovered a faience (ceramic) cup under a rock with Tut’s name. This connected Tutankhamen with the Valley.
2. Davis discovered a small pit (1907) with animal bones, wine jars, bandages with Tutankhamen’s name, the remains of Tut’s last meal, and a small mummy mask, along with floral pectorals.
3. When Davis found a small tomb containing gold foil with Tut’s name, he declared in a book: “I fear the Valley is now exhausted.” But he was wrong.
4. Tomb 55, found in 1907, contained a gilded wooden shrine of Queen Tiye and a coffin with the cartouche hacked out, plus a fragile mummy. It was considered a possible tomb for Tutankhamen.
E. Lord Carnarvon’s automobile accident (1903) finally led to the discovery of the tomb.
1. Carnarvon hired the unemployed Howard Carter. They made a good team.
2. Convinced that Davis hadn’t found Tutankhamen, in 1917, they obtained the concession for the Valley of the Kings.
3. After excavating for several years, they found the first step to the tomb on November 4, 1922; the next day they found the door. Finally a sealed door was uncovered. Carter wired Carnarvon, “Wonderful things.”
4. The burial chamber (February 16, 1923) contained four gilded shrines enclosing the yellow quartzite sarcophagus with a cracked lid of pink granite. The lid was removed on February 12, 1924.
5. After committing what his Egyptian hosts regarded as a political gaffe, Carter went on strike and was eventually locked out.
6. When Carter returned to work in October 1925, the coffins were opened. The outer one had four silver handles. The third was made of 250 pounds of gold. The mummy was there, but no records in the tomb tell of his family. Carter was puzzled by this.
7. Tomb objects included chariots and thrones, but no crown. Perhaps the crown was a magical object that passed from pharaoh to pharaoh.
Essential Reading:
Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamen.
Supplementary Reading:
Nicholas Reeves, Howard Carter Before Tutankhamen.
Questions to Consider:
1. What led to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb?
2. What did we learn from the objects in the tomb?