King Tutankhamun – 1922
2007 marks the 85th anniversary of the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter.
The Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb - November - 1922
At the beginning of November 1922, Howard Carter was on the threshold of the world’s most spectacular archaeological find – the Tomb of Tutankhamun. On the morning of November 4th there it was, a step cut in the rock beneath the first of the huts built over 3,000 years earlier by the workmen of Rameses VI, during the cutting of his tomb. There, just 13 feet below the entrance to the tomb of Rameses VI, was the realisation of all Carter had dreamed of in his many years of systematic searching. During the daylight of November 4th and most of November 5th the workmen dug feverishly, almost as excited as Carter himself, to reveal what looked more and more like a sunken stairway entrance, typical of tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
They dug, as step followed step. Soon they found themselves entering the side of a small hillock, which as they excavated became a roofed-in passage 10 feet high by 6 feet wide. Step followed step. By the twelfth step they came across the top of a sealed doorway. Beyond this door there was a passage completely filled with rubble, as protection against robbers. Could Tutankhamun’s tomb be intact?
Then, at a time when the discovery was becoming more and more exciting, Carter stopped. He filled in the excavation and went home. In a situation when most people, and indeed most excavators of the period, would have torn down that sealed doorway in an uncontrollable desire to reach what lay inside, Howard Carter waited. In this case he waited for Lord Carnarvon, his associate and patron, who was not in Egypt but in England.
On November 6th, with the passage filled in, Carter cabled Lord Carnarvon in England.
By November 24th, Carnarvon with his daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, had arrived, the excavation re-opened and the work continued, to reveal a full sixteen steps with the sealed doorway beyond.
Having recorded and photographed the seals and made good provision for a replacement door, the excavators removed the door, clearing the rubble from floor to ceiling for a full thirty feet from the outer door. Then before them another door.
Here for better or worse was the decisive moment, and they knew it, as with trembling hands Carter made a hole in the door large enough to pass a candle through. There was no rubble behind this door. There were no poisonous gases. What was behind the door was to stagger the world and give Howard Carter and his anxious colleagues the most remarkable day of their lives. It was November 26th 1922, when Carter, hardly daring to breathe, put a candle through the hole in the door of Tutankhamun’s Tomb and peered into the darkness. He wrote later:
“At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold.”
By this time Carnarvon could restrain himself no longer,
“Can you see anything?” he inquired. After a pause of what must have seemed minutes Carter replied, “Yes, wonderful things.”
Extract from “The Discovery of The Tomb Of Tutankhamun” by World Heritage Books. © Copyright 2007 World Heritage Books, Dorchester, UK.
King Tut Key Dates November 1922:
1 – Start of the 1922 Season
4 – Discovery of the first step of the tomb entrance
5 – Excavated down to the 12th step confirmation that steps were part of entrance to tomb. Cabled Carnarvon in England.
6 – Discovery filled in again with rocks and rubble
20 – Lord Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn arrived in Cairo
23 – Carter’s assistant Callender begins work on clearing the rubble
24 – Excavation reached the first outer doorway
25 – The first doorway opened and clearing passage of rubble began. Small objects discovered.
26 – Second doorway opened. Carter and Carnarvon enter the antechamber
27 – Tomb inspected with the aid of electric light
29 – Official opening of the Tutankhamun’s Tomb
You may be interested in “Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation”, Howard Carter’s diaries at
http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/4sea1not.html
Return to Tutankhamun Exhibition main page: http://www.tutankhamunexhibition.com
January 28th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
King Tutankhamun was an interesting figure. Your blog has a lot of useful information! Is it true that strange events started happening after the tomb was discovered?