Foreword
No archeologist who worked in Egypt gained the fame of Howard carter. On his way to visit the valley of the kings on the west bank of Luxor, each visitor to Luxor must see his house – which now is a museum – and consider it the most crucial house in all Luxor. Around 120 years ago, he lived in the house and organized excavations.
He was born in Kensington on nine May 1874, the youngest child of (eleven ) of petite John Carter and Martha Joyce. Through the support and training of his father, he developed the artistic talent of Howard Carter.
He spent much time of his childhood with relatives in the Norfolk market town of Swaffham . the birthplace of his parents. Receiving only limited official education at Swaffham, he revealed talent as an artist. The nearby mansion of the Amherst family, Kidlington hall, containing a sizable collection of Egyptian antiques, sparked Howard Carter’s interest in that subject.
The appearance of lady Amherst and her impression of his artistic skills prompted the Egypt exploration fund in 1891 to send Carter to assist Amherst’s family friend in the excavation and recording of middle kingdom tombs at Beni Hassan.
However, Carter was only 17 years old. He was innovative in improving methods and techniques of copying tomb decorations. In 1892, he worked under the guidance of Flinders Petrie for one season at Amarna, the ancient capital founded by king Akhenaten.
Later from 1894 to 1899, he worked at Deir el Bahari, where he recorded the wall reliefs in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
In 1899, Carter was nominated inspector of monuments for upper Egypt in the Egyptian antiquities service based at Luxor. He oversaw several excavations and restorations near Luxor. While in King’sKing’s valley, he supervised the systematic exploration of the valley by the American archeologist Theodor Davis.
In 1904, after a dispute with indigenous people over tomb robbery, he was transferred to the inspectorate of lower Egypt.
Cater was proud of his improvements in the protection of excavations sites and his development of a grid block system and techniques for searching for tombs. The antiquities service also provided funding for Carter to manage his excavation projects.
Carter resigned from the antiquities service in 1905 after a formal inquiry into what became known as the Saqqara affair, a violent confrontation between Egyptian site workers and a group of French tourists. Carter sided with the Egyptians, refusing to apologize when the french authorities made an official complaint. Carter moved back to Luxor without formal employment for nearly three years. He earned his living by painting and selling watercolors to tourists in 1906, acting as a freelance draughtsman for Theodore Davis.
The springboard to Tutankhamun
Around 15 years before discovery in 1907, Howard Carter began to work with Lord Carnarvon, who employed him to supervise the excavation of noble’s tombs in Deir el Bahri, on the west bank of Thebes. Gaston Maspero, the head of the Egyptian antiquities service, had recommended carter to Carnarvon as he knew he would apply modern archeological methods and systems of recording. Carter soon created a good relationship with his patron, with lady burghclere, Carnarvon’s sister.
observing that “the two men worked together with varying fortune for the next sixteen years, yet ever united not more by their common aim than by their mutual regard and affection.”
In 1914, lord Carnarvon received a concession to dig in the valley of the kings. Carter led the work under the systemic search for tombs missed by previous expeditions, particularly the king tut Ankh Amun. However, excavations were soon interrupted by the first world war. Carter spent the war years working for the British government as a diplomatic courier and translator. He enthusiastically resumed his excavation work towards the end of 1917.
Lack of results after several long years of finding little made lord Carnarvon dissatisfied by 1922,
After considering withdrawing his funding, Carnarvon agreed, after discussion with carter, that he would fund one more season for work in king’s valley.
After that, Carter returned to kings valley with great energy and investigated a line of huts that he had abandoned a few seasons earlier. The crew cleared the huts and rock debris beneath.
On 4 November 1922, a young boy from Luxor accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the bedrock.
Carter had the steps partially dug out until he found the top of the mud-plastered doorway.
The doorway was stamped with indistinct cartouches.
Curse of pharaohs
After discovering king tut Ankh Amun’s tomb, twelve members of carter’s team died, then appeared feature “curse of pharos.” This is a false feature since the main reason was that: opening such a tomb was closed more than 3000 years full of bakteria, and other things, typical to be the danger on their health.
Even Howard carter died in England 17 years after discovering tut Ankh Amun’s tomb and was buried there.
1 comment
Those are yours alright! . We at least need to get these people stealing images to start blogging! They probably just did a image search and grabbed them. They look good though!