Howard Carter

Despite the fact that Tutankhamen, or "King Tut," ruled Egypt for only a brief period of little significance, he became one of the most well known pharaohs in history when British archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed his tomb in the early 1920s. The discovery of the 3,000-year-old artifacts entombed with the pharaoh inspired a worldwide resurgence in the study of ancient Egypt, and transformed the site into a popular tourist destination.

Early Life

Howard Carter was born on May 9, 1873 in Norfolk, England. His father, Samuel John Carter, was a fairly successful painter and draftsman who nonetheless had trouble providing a formal education for all of his offspring. Since he was the youngest of eleven children, his education was cut short after only a few years of elementary school. Carter then took a position as his father's apprentice.

Carter's father taught him to draw, and the boy proved to be a talented artist. In 1890, he joined the Archaeological Survey of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and began working as a draftsman alongside prominent archaeologists. He was first exposed to the art of ancient Egypt at the age of seventeen, when he met P.E. Newberry, a celebrated Egyptologist known for his tracings of artwork found in tombs. Carter's task was to embellish Newberry's sketches in ink. He became fascinated by the work, and soon engrossed himself in all aspects of Egyptology.

The Young Egyptologist

After traveling to Egypt and studying under famed archaeologists such as W.M. Flinders Petrie and Henri Eduoard Naville, Carter became the primary inspector of ancient artifacts for the Egyptian government in 1899. He was assigned to the Upper Egypt and Nubia regions for three years, during which time he supervised several excavations. In 1904, Carter was reassigned to Lower and Middle Egypt, where he helped uncover the tomb of King Amenhotep I of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During this period, he befriended British archaeologist George Herbert, the Earl of Carnarvon, and the two began a long professional relationship.

In 1917, Carter and Herbert began a methodical exploration of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, a vast ancient cemetery located in Western Thebes, on the bank of the Nile River. Between 1550 and 1100 BC, the gorge was used as a burial ground for Egyptian pharaohs, who were placed in tombs carved in the rocky walls of the narrow valley. The pair excavated the area for five years without uncovering any Egyptian artifacts.

During their sixth and final season of excavation, Carter and Herbert finally found what they were searching for. In November 1922, while Herbert was in England, Carter uncovered a series of stairs leading to a doorway in the rock wall. Holding a candle up to the writing on the door, he was able to decipher the word "Tutankhamen." Once he entered the dark room beyond the door, and beheld the golden statues and decorations, he realized that he had discovered the 3,000-year-old tomb of King Tut.

King Tut's Tomb

Tutankhamen, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, ruled Egypt from 1333-23 BC. He succeeded his father, Akhenaten, as King of Egypt when he was only nine years old. He reigned for ten years during a time of prosperity, and was considered by historians to be a minor pharaoh until Carter's discovery. Tutankhamen's relative historical irrelevance accounts for the fact that his tomb remained unnoticed, and untouched by looters and vandals, for so long.

Since the tomb had been sealed for millennia, the artifacts within were in exceptionally good condition. In addition to the magnificent golden furniture and "shawabati," or servant statues, present in the tomb, Carter found Tutankhamen's sarcophagus and gold death mask completely intact. The death mask, an effigy of the king's face, features the distinctive sacred cobra and beard that have come to represent all Egyptian pharaohs in the public's perception. In fact, many of the popular images that we typically associate with ancient Egypt may be credited to the pristine examples uncovered during Carter's excavation.

Carter and his team of assistants were incredibly meticulous about cataloging and accounting for every detail of the discovery, but the extensive international media coverage of the find made it difficult for the archaeologists to complete their work. Ultimately, Carter spent ten years overseeing the removal of the artifacts from the tomb. His three-volume account of the excavation's findings, "The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen," co-written with Arthur C. Mace, was completed in 1933.

Impact and Aftermath

In the initial confusion and publicity surrounding the discovery, an unexpected tragedy occurred. On April 5, 1923, Herbert died from an infection caused by a mosquito bite. The unusual circumstances surrounding the event prompted many to attribute the Egyptologist's sudden death to the "Curse of King Tut," a kind of punishment for disturbing the pharaoh's tomb. Carter dismissed the idea as pure fantasy.

Following Herbert's death, a dispute arose surrounding the ownership of the artifacts. Since Herbert's family had financed the excavation, they believed that they were entitled to the treasure. In the end, the Egyptian government claimed the right of ownership, and despite Carter's protests, he was temporarily banned from the excavation site.

While he continued to supervise the excavation, Carter found himself thrust into the spotlight. He traveled to the United States, where he delivered lectures to enormous, enthusiastic crowds, and although he had little formal education, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Yale University. Tourists and journalists flocked from around the world to Egypt to visit the Valley of the Kings. Widely regarded as one of the foremost archaeologists of the time, Carter's contribution to contemporary understanding of the ancient world was immense.

Once the excavation was complete, and he had finished cataloging the discovery, Carter spent the remainder of his life in ill health, suffering from what would later be diagnosed as Hodgkin's disease. The artifacts from Tutankhamen's tomb were displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and Carter retired from archaeology and became a private collector of Egyptian antiquities. He returned to England in the late 1930s, where he died of cardiac failure on March 2, 1939, at the age of sixty-four.