by Michael Fassbender

Created on: September 13, 2008   Last Updated: November 07, 2011

The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 was one of the great moments in the history of archaeology. It had everything: a treasure spectacular enough to capture the imagination of even the most ardent materialist, but also a wealth of historical material to significantly advance our knowledge of ancient Egypt and, above all, human drama in the lives and deaths of the discoverers and the discovered alike. This one archaeological discovery has commanded attention for several generations now in a way that has not happened before or since.

The force behind this discovery was without doubt the determination, if not obsession, of Howard Carter. Carter, the son of an artist, began his career as an illustrator, and it was in that capacity that he came to Egypt in the first place. While he had no formal training in Egyptology, he received a first-class introduction to the subject with the groundbreaking Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie in the latter's excavations at Tell el Amarna.

The origin of Carter's dream came from his years as Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Upper Egypt, serving under the famous, and highly supportive, Gaston Maspero. Shortly before Carter's appointment in 1899, a lengthy moratorium on excavation in the Valley of the Kings had been lifted, and Carter was free to dig as he would— provided that he could secure the appropriate funding. This became available in the form of a wealthy American, Theodore Davis. Carter induced Davis to finance excavations in the Valley of the Kings, and Davis proceeded to do so for 13 years; Carter himself was not to be the primary beneficiary of Davis' largesse, however, as he would be transferred two years later.

Still, those two years were not uneventful, as Carter would excavate the tombs of Tuthmosis IV and Hatshepsut with Davis' help. Carter persuaded himself that there had to be a tomb somewhere in the valley that had heretofore escaped notice, and waited intact for a lucky shovel. After Carter's departure, Davis made a series of discoveries that pointed to the prospect of that tomb being that of Tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun had previously been unknown. Most of his monuments had been taken over by Horemheb as his own, and his name became lost to the Egyptians' own history because of the desire to efface the entire Amarna period. The official king lists jump from Amunhotep III to Horemheb without acknowledging the passage of intervening time. There was, however, no mistaking of the significance

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