‘Wonderful things,’ indeed

Wide fascination with ancient Egypt has long history, specialist says

By Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer

Britain’s Lord Carnarvon asked famed archaeologist Howard Carter what he saw as he first peered into King Tut’s tomb.

“Wonderful things,” Carter supposedly replied.

Carter would eventually catalog thousands of objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king, including some of archaeology’s most recognizable artifacts. The 1922 find sparked a craze for all things ancient Egypt, but that was just the latest wave of “Egyptomania” to wash over the world, according to Bob Brier, a Long Island University senior research fellow and Egyptologist with a particular expertise in mummies.

The phenomenon started in force more than 200 years ago, Brier says, with Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 invasion of Egypt, where he defeated a Mamluk army in a battle fought near Cairo, within sight of the pyramids. French rule of the country wouldn’t last long, collapsing after British Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet days later in the Battle of the Nile.

But Napoleon did not go away empty-handed. His gains included the records of more than 100 artists, engineers, and scientists who, as the fighting raged, collected, drew, and documented the natural and manmade wonders of Egypt. The publication of their work in France fed a curiosity that hasn’t faded. According to Brier, it flows largely from three spheres of interest: mummies, the mystery of hieroglyphics, and the allure of a lost civilization, epitomized by Carter’s discovery of Tut’s tomb.

The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the legacy of Howard Carter

By Dr Joanna Kyffin 
Sunday, 17 February 2013


Ninety years ago, Howard Carter and his patron, George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, opened the first and only intact royal burial to ever have been discovered in Egypt. The tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings which was probably originally intended for a non-royal burial. In comparison to the tomb of Amenhotep III, who had been buried only some 20 years earlier in a large, complex and gorgeously decorated tomb, Tutankhamun’s tomb, consisting of just four small rooms, three of which were undecorated, is modest, even humble.

Nonetheless, no other royal mummy has ever been found in the tomb in which it was first laid to rest, with its grave goods almost undisturbed and Carter’s momentous discovery has shaped the field of Egyptology ever since.

Howard Carter was a self-made man, the son of a well-known portrait artist, and his first endeavours in Egyptology were as an artist and draughtsman rather than an excavator. At the tender age of 17 he undertook his first work in Egypt with Percy Newberry at the site of Beni Hasan, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society).

Carter’s artistic skills were his passport into employment, along with his relatively humble origins – a letter from Francis Llewellyn Griffith, curator at the British Museum and head of the Archaeological Survey branch of the EEF, sets out the criteria for choosing the right man for the job: ‘it matters not whether the artist is a gentleman or not… A gentleman, unless of an economical turn of mind, would run into extra expenses very likely’.

Egypt celebrates 90 year anniversary of Tutankhamun’s tomb discovery

Ninety years ago on November 22 the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in Egypt.

After years of finding smaller archaeological hauls in the area Egyptologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, opened the tomb and discovered an abundance of gold and fineries left with the king after his death and mummification.

On Thursday the great-grandson of the 5th Earl, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Lord Carnarvon attended an event to celebrate this anniversary at Howard Carter’s house which is now a museum a few miles from the Valley of the Kings.

Egypt's ministers of tourism and antiquities were present as were ambassadors to Egypt from the United States and Singapore amongst others.

The current Lord Carnarvon, George, explained the importance of the celebration.

“Well I’m here today in Luxor, indeed in Howard Carter’s house, Castle Carter as it’s known, because it's the 90th year following the first discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. When my great-grandfather and Howard Carter actually broke through the outer sealed door with Tutankhamun’s cartouche and crest on it and when they first saw into the ante-chamber of the tomb. This amazing archaeological discovery that has never been surpassed,” he said.

Carnarvon is a big fan of his great-grandfather but readily admits his wife Fiona is more of an expert on Egyptology than he is, even translating a certain amount of hieroglyphics. He says opening the tomb was a very dramatic moment.

“My great-grandfather says to Howard Carter ‘What do you see?’ and Carter famously replies ‘Just wonderful things.’ And he's looking back at this, in a way perhaps, theatre set of ancient civilization 3,100 years ago, everywhere the glint of gold off those beautiful wooden objects and that's just the start,” said Carnarvon.

The 8th Earl funded Carter's excavation work in the Valley of the Kings for several years. The pair were in their last year of working together when they made by far their greatest discovery: the tomb of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. It is still the best preserved of the pharaonic tombs in the area.

By Reuters

Friday, 23 November 2012

Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/23/251316.html

Much Ado About Nothing: Examining the Curse of Tutankhamun

By SUJAY KULSHRESTHA

In the early part of the 20th century, the world experienced tumultuous change. At the turn of the century, advances in technology linked humans around the world like never before, political borders changed in the aftermath of one of the deadliest wars known, and the world began to settle into a period of prosperity. In the Valley of the Kings, the early part of the 1920’s brought immeasurable fame with the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. Howard Carter’s opening of a nearly intact tomb in 1922 revived the popular appeal of ancient Egypt and the history it contained. However, with this fame came notoriety; within four months, Lord Carnarvon, one of the benefactors of the excavations, passed away. News of his death instigated rumors and discussion of a possible curse on the tomb, and subsequent deaths of those involved in the project, whether explained or not, became fodder for curse enthusiasts. Popular depictions of ancient Egypt only added fuel to the fire, with the relationship between ancient Egypt and the occult becoming cemented in the eye of public opinion.

Tutankhamun, more popularly known as King Tut, represents one of the most sensational archaeological finds of the 20th century. The discovery and subsequent research into the tomb’s origins and background have fascinated many, electrified the field of Egyptian Archaeology, and provided as many questions as answers. Tutankhamun’s tomb was unique in that it was unlike any other discovery; the archetypal Egyptian tomb is, of course, the noble Pyramid. Carter’s discovery of a tomb underneath the level of the desert baffled even him. In his own reflections upon the discovery, he details his confusion on the structure of the tomb, stating that the “smallness of the opening in comparison with the ordinary Valley tombs” baffled him1. Further, the tomb remained relatively untouched−Carter found all the artifacts in the tomb intact, making the tomb a very exciting find. From the very beginning, Tutankhamun’s tomb provided a unique air of mystery; in the subsequent excavations, archaeologists began to get a clearer picture of who Tutankhamun was and the reasons for his tomb’s bizarre structure. It is now known that Tutankhamun ruled in politically turbulent period of Ancient Egypt. Born in about 1343 B.C. as Tutankhaten, he ascended to the throne at the age of nine, after the death of his father Akhenaten.2 Akhenaten attempted to change the religion of ancient Egypt to monotheism, following Aten as its sole god−the Egyptian people did not take kindly to this change, which archaeologists believe explains Akhenaten’s untimely death and Tutankhamun’s ascension to the throne at the age of nine. Tutankhaten reversed monotheism during his short rule, and took the name Tutankhamun to signify this reversal.3 Other than his restoration of Amun as chief religious figure, very few details exist on what went on during Tutankhamun’s brief nine year reign. Archaeologists accept that due to Tutankhamun’s age, other individuals held most of the ruling power, but it remains uncertain the extent to which Tutankhamun actually participated in day to day affairs.4 Tutankhamun’s mystique has some basis in the limited information that we have on his life and times, undoubtedly contributing to the emergence of the curse.

On This Day: King Tut’s Tomb Discovered

November 26, 2011 06:00 AM

by findingDulcinea Staff

On Nov. 26, 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter made a small hole in a sealed doorway and, holding up a candle, shed light onto King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Luxor, Egypt, for the first time in more than 3,000 years.

Tutankhamen’s Tomb Discovered

When Carter first arrived in Egypt, in 1891, as part of a British-sponsored archaeological survey, most of the ancient tombs had been discovered and plundered; it seemed unlikely that any undisturbed burial chambers remained.

Carter, however, believed that the tomb of Tutankhamen, the boy king from 14th century B.C., still laid in the Valley of the Kings, on the eastern side of the Nile River. Sponsored by Lord Carnarvon, a collector of antiquities, Carter began excavating in the area in 1914.

On Nov. 4, 1922, Carter found the first signs of what proved to be Tutankhamen's tomb. But it was not until Nov. 26, after days spent clearing a passage down a long, steep stairway, that he and Lord Carnarvon reached a second sealed doorway, behind which were hidden treasures of the boy king’s last resting place.

In his diary, Carter described the inside the tomb as a “strange and wonderful medley of extraordinary and beautiful objects heaped upon one another.”

“We questioned one another as to the meaning of it all,” he wrote. “Was it a tomb or merely a cache? A sealed doorway between the two sentinel statues proved there was more beyond, and with the numerous cartouches bearing the name of Tut.ankh.Amen on most of the objects before us, there was little doubt that there behind was the grave of that Pharaoh.”

On Feb. 16, 1923, after three months of removing the treasures, Carter was at last able to unseal the door of the burial chamber, revealing King Tut’s solid gold coffin and mummified remains.

Though they might seem today to be treasures beyond imagining, the contents of King Tut's tomb were modest by Pharaonic standards. In addition to jewelry and gold, Carter discovered a chariot, statuary and weapons.

The most stunning find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, made of solid gold, was the mummified body of Tutankhamen, preserved for 3,200 years.

Biography: Tutankhamen

Tutankhamen ruled Egypt from 1336 to 1327 B.C. His father Akhenaten left the 9-year-old heir with a country in ruins as a result of religious extremism.

The young king was originally named Tutankhaten, or "the living image of Aten," after the sun god. While he was young, the military and priesthood used him as a puppet while they pushed a return to traditional ways and religion. As a result, they renamed him Tutankhamen, after Amen, a traditional god.

Tutankhamen died suddenly at the age of 19, and the circumstances of his death are still debated. A 1968 x-ray revealed loose bone fragments in Tut’s skull, which fueled speculation that he was murdered.

Recent scholarship has found that it is unlikely that Tut died of head trauma; the damage to the skull was more likely caused by the embalmers or by Carter’s excavators. Most scientific theories for Tut’s death focus on disease or infection.

Source: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/November/King-Tuts-Tomb-Discovered.html