This year marks the 103rd anniversary of the most important archaeological discovery in history, that of the tomb of the golden Pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose funerary collection will be the star of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) that officially opens on 3 July.
It is important for the public to know more about the circumstances of the discovery, especially the relationships between the people that led up to it.
First, the man who found the tomb has had his name recorded in history. This was the Englishman Howard Carter, who was born on 9 May 1874 to a modest family living in London. His father was Samuel Carter, a draughtsman for the Illustrated London News. His mother was Martha, who bore 10 sons and one daughter. Three of his brothers died before Howard was born.
Howard himself was a sickly child, and his parents did not believe he would live long. They decided to send him to live with his aunt in the countryside outside London in the hope that the country air would help to save his life.
Carter’s only talent was drawing, like his father and his brother William. He did not have a good education but rather depended on the school of life. He would later say that “life taught me.” He learned how to read and write in schools that taught the poor, and his lack of formal education can be seen in the letters that he sent from Egypt when he was a young man. They are riddled with spelling errors.
Carter came to Cairo under the protection of Lord and Lady Amherst, who had five daughters. Lord Amherst loved art and culture and owned a huge library of books on various topics. He also collected papyri and Egyptian artefacts. Amherst met Carter through his father, who had done portraits of him and his family.
While Carter was in Cairo, there was an announcement that a committee was being formed to discover more about ancient Egypt and that this would include an expedition to record monuments in Middle Egypt. The expedition would be headed by Percy Newberry. Lady Amherst wrote a letter to the committee asking that they include Carter on the expedition because of his artistic skills. They agreed, giving him a salary of 50 pounds sterling per year, or about four pounds a month. This was in 1890 when Carter was 17 years old.
Carter spent some time in Cairo before heading to Minya with the expedition. It is here that he met the British father of archaeology, William Flinders Petrie. Carter also visited the predecessor of the Cairo Museum at the time, kept in the palace of Ismail Pasha in Giza. Objects were moved there after the Bulaq Museum was destroyed by flooding in 1878 and the construction of the museum itself had not yet begun.
Newberry and Carter went to Minya to begin working on the tombs of Beni Hassan and Deir Al-Bersha. They lived inside the tombs while they were working. After they had finished recording and drawing for the day, they would walk in the surrounding mountains. But an argument took place within the team, and Newberry was forced to resign. Carter lost the man who had supported him on this expedition.
Carter then worked with Petrie and began to learn excavation techniques such as recording and restoration. He also moved around to work with other expeditions. He thus lived in Egypt for a long time, learning Arabic and becoming an expert in how to deal with Egyptian workmen. When he was working at Deir Al-Bahari in Upper Egypt, he moved from being a draughtsman to being a professional archaeologist. His name began to be known in the archaeological field.
After the Egyptian Museum was constructed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, it became the main place for antiquities in Egypt. Two new positions were created: chief inspector of the monuments of Lower Egypt (North) and chief inspector of the monuments of Upper Egypt (South). These men would oversee bringing new artefacts to the museum.
The power of the northern inspector extended from Alexandria and the Delta to Cairo, while the southern inspector was in control of Kus in Middle Egypt down to Sudan, with his headquarters in Luxor. Carter’s name was put up to take one of the positions, and he chose to work in the south. James Edward Quibell, who had graduated from Oxford, got the northern position.
Each man had a salary of 600 Egyptian pounds per year, or 50 pounds per month. At the time, this was a great deal of money. The Egyptian pound was worth a little bit more than sterling at the time, with a British pound being worth 97 piastres. While Carter had not graduated from university, he was equal to any other archaeologist working in Egypt.
LIFE IN EGYPT: This was a good time for Carter. He began working in Luxor, where he excavated, worked on restoration, and prepared sites for visits.
He used his relationships with wealthy people to bring in money and used his position to protect antiquities from theft. He changed the doors of the royal tombs from wood to iron to protect them from looting. The tomb of Amenhotep II was looted, for example, and the thieves damaged the mummy of the king and other mummies in the tomb. They also stole a boat. Carter was sure that the Abdel-Rassoul family, famous for their work in excavation, was behind the theft. Three of the family members were arrested, but the stolen boat was never recovered.
In 1904, Carter moved to Lower Egypt and stayed in Saqqara. This move was a reward for his achievements up to that date, and it would be the catalyst for an important moment in his life.
A few months later on 8 January 1905, a team of 15 men from a French electricity company came to Saqqara. They were all drunk and treated everyone badly. They hurt Mohamed Effendi, the chief Egyptian official in charge, and the guard of the Serapeum. The guard went to Carter to complain about the French men’s behaviour, and Carter ordered the guards to remove them from the site.
The guards did just this, which later led to the director of the company complaining that Carter had allowed the guards to attack women and children who had been with the group. Despite evidence to the contrary, it was decided to move Carter to Tanta in the Delta. He did not stay there long but resigned in November 1905.
Carter was now on his own. After the disagreement with the French, he did not go back to England but stayed in Egypt. He returned to Luxor and lived in the house of a farmer, paying little rent. Without a steady income, Carter reverted to his artistic skills, selling his drawings to survive. He knew that Egypt and its monuments had made him an important person for a while, and if he left, he would be left with nothing. So, he stayed on as an artist. Unfortunately, he did not have the skills of his brother or father.
While living in Luxor, Carter met Theodore Davis, an archaeologist and adventurer who had an important concession in the Valley of the Kings. Carter got a position working under him, but the two did not like each other. They were too different. After a short time, Carter met Lord Carnarvon, which would lead to a new chapter of his life. The two men would have their names recorded in history, because Carnarvon funded the excavations in which Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun.
But before we discuss the discovery, it is important to mention a letter that Carter wrote when he was inspector to Lady Amherst. He asked her to tell Lord Amherst that he had been allowed to draw up the rules to protect Egypt’s antiquities. However, this was not true: the regulations were made by the then Antiquities Department and were approved by the Egyptian parliament.
It is not clear why Carter did not seem to understand these regulations, or why he later fought to take 50 per cent of the objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb. Perhaps he was trying to impress on Lady Amherst that he was more important than he really was.
On 4 November 1922, it was announced that the tomb of Tutankhamun had been found by Carter during an expedition funded by Carnarvon. This was during their fourth season of work in Luxor, and it had been agreed that the fourth season should be the last. None of the previous seasons had made any important discoveries.
Carnarvon hoped that an intact tomb could be discovered because he wanted to share what was found with the Egyptian government. He wanted to sell his portion, which would have allowed him to continue his archaeological adventures. He wanted his name to be recorded for posterity. While his name would be recorded, the political circumstances of Egypt and the rest of the world during that time foiled his plans.
EGYPT AND ENGLAND: Many people, especially foreign writers, have discussed the relationship between Egypt and Britain at this time, but few have understood Egypt in general.
Many of the facts have disappeared from the public eye. The thrill of the discovery of the tomb has hidden many of the circumstances of the time.
On 18 December 1914, Egypt was formally made a British protectorate, ending the power of the Ottoman Empire in the country. The announcement came a few months after the beginning of World War I, when Britain was fighting against the Ottoman Empire. On 11 November 1918, the war ended with the defeat of the empire.
Life began to return to normal in Egypt. Tourists came back, and people again began to care about the Pharaohs and the monuments. Archaeological expeditions returned, and the Frenchman Pierre Lacau returned to his position as director of antiquities, which he retained until 1936. Carter began his search for new discoveries in the Valley of the Kings.
Meanwhile, on 28 February 1922, Britain declared Egyptian independence. However, it retained control of the Suez Canal and the right to protect foreigners in Egypt. This control was rejected by the Egyptians, who still struggled for complete independence. The country changed from a protectorate under British control to the Kingdom of Egypt.
This meant that the discovery of the tomb that November happened after the end of the main phase of British colonisation. Had it not done so, perhaps the artefacts in it could have ended up in Carnarvon’s possession or in the British Museum.
Lacau made many adjustments to the rules regarding antiquities at this time, especially those regarding foreign expeditions. Only expeditions connected with museums and institutions could work in Egypt. However, Carter and Carnarvon had had their permission to work in the Valley of the Kings before this rule came into effect, so they could continue to work. Lacau also said that the Egyptian Museum had the right to keep anything that was found that was deemed unique and that if a tomb was found that was intact there should be no division of the contents.
Carnarvon and Carter did not know that these new rules would mean that the golden treasure of the tomb would be taken out of their hands and would stay forever in Egypt.
The first thing Carnarvon did after the discovery of the tomb was to give exclusive rights for news of the discovery to The London Times on 9 January 1923, for which he received 5,000 pounds sterling. He refused to put a line in the contract regarding films, as he was hoping that Hollywood would want to make a film about the discovery.
Thus, Carnarvon only thought about his own benefit. He never thought that this discovery was in Egypt and was for the Egyptians. Egypt had its own press and reporters, of course, and its writers had a right to publish news of the tomb. But Carter and Carnarvon did not believe that they should do anything for the Egyptians, instead making money for themselves from the discovery of the tomb.
It is illuminating to read Egyptologist Arthur Weigall’s comments from the time, who said that Carter was unaware of how to treat people. At the beginning of the second half of the season of the discovery, everyone was faced with the issue of no newspaper being able to write about the discovery except the London Times. At that time, Carter and Carnarvon also began to take treasures out of the tomb.
POST DISCOVERY: Discussions began between Carnarvon, Carter, and Lacau. Carter was shocked to discover that nothing could leave Egypt. At first, he believed this to be a French joke, but he found that it was true.
Owing to the laws at the time, Carnarvon and Carter began to say that the tomb was not intact but had been entered and robbed twice. If this were true, the rules about intact tombs being indivisible could not apply. They even brought in archaeologists to witness their efforts and to say that the tomb was not intact.
Many people began to talk to Lacau about letting the artefacts leave Egypt. Others talked about the arrogance of Carter. The foreign press attacked the Egyptians, saying that the artefacts should go to England. Other archaeologists who were jealous of Carter began to attack his morals.
At this point, another man appeared on the scene. Marcos Pasha Hanna hated the English because they had put him in jail for his nationalist activities. When he was released, he became the minister of public works in the new government, meaning that the Antiquities Department was under his control.
He could see that Carter was not permitting Egyptians to enter the tomb. On 13 February 1924, Carter was going to open the tomb of Tutankhamun to the wives of some important foreign individuals, allowing them to go into the burial chamber. This was the final straw for Hanna, who stopped Carter.
An argument broke out between the two men, and it ended with Hanna dismissing Carter from Egypt. What is amazing is the pride that the Egyptians felt for the discovery after this moment. People in Cairo marched in the streets yelling “Vive the Minister of Tut.”
People tried to talk Hanna into allowing Carter to return because they were afraid objects would be stolen from the tomb if the work did not continue. Hanna finally agreed on two conditions. The first was that Carter must apologise for the way he had treated the Egyptians during his excavations. The second was that Carter and Evelyn Carnarvon, the daughter of Lord Carnarvon and the current sponsor of the excavation, must write a letter stating that they had no right to any division of the tomb.
At first, Carter refused, but eventually he relented and agreed to return to Egypt. Lady Evelyn and Carter wrote the letter saying they had no right to any division of the objects in the tomb. The then Egyptian government paid Lady Evelyn 36,000 pounds sterling, the amount that her father had spent on his expedition that had found the tomb. Carter was hired as an official by the government to continue excavating the tomb.
There are still two important things to discuss. The first is the death of Lord Carnarvon. Five months after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Carnarvon died. Reporters could not write about the discovery of the tomb due to the contract with the London Times, but they could write about Carnarvon’s death. As a result, many stories were created, and the curse of King Tut was born.
One story said that Carnarvon had been bitten by a cobra, another that insects had attacked him. It was said that when Carnarvon had died in Shepheard’s Hotel in Luxor, his dog had died at the same time in England. None of this is possible. The only curse from ancient Egyptian tombs is that if you close a tomb for 3,000 years with a mummy inside, germs will inevitably multiply. The early archaeologists could get sick from these germs. Today, when we open a new tomb, we leave it for two days before anyone is allowed to enter.
The second is that while I am not going to say that Carter or Carnarvon were thieves, there are some interesting facts. There are 19 objects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that were given to the Museum by Carter, for example. There is also the issue of the beautiful head of Nefertem that was packed inside the KV4 tomb of Ramses XI to put in a box to leave Egypt.
Assistants of Carter at the time said that this head was not from the KV4 tomb as claimed, but in fact had come from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Carter was lecturing at the time of this incident, so we do not know if he was aware of this possible deception, or if it was meant as a deception.
Finally, there are some letters from Egyptologist Alain Gardner, who translated the texts from the tomb. In the letters, it appears that Carter gave Gardiner some amulets, presumably from the tomb of Tutankhamun, as a reward for his work. It also appears that Carter had given gifts of amulets to others, including Lady Evelyn.
Gardiner returned the amulets and told Carter that he had had no right to do what he had done. Carnarvon likely also began to take objects from the tomb after he realised that there was no way to take objects out of the tomb legally. The evidence for this is in a book written by Tom Hoving, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum, called Tutankhamun: The Untold Story.
While the story of the discovery of the tomb of the golden boy-king Tutankhamun may be known throughout the world, there are still some parts of it that are not told enough.
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