Howard Carter (archaeologist)

From New World Encyclopedia



Howard Carter (May 9, 1874 – March 2, 1939) was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist. He is most famous as the discoverer of KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt.

Family

Howard Carter was born in 1874 in Brompton, Kensington, London, the youngest son of 8 children. His father, Samuel Carter, was an artist as also was his brother William Carter, (1863-1939). His mother was Martha Joyce (Sands) Carter. Carter grew up in Swaffham, mostly farmland in northern Norfolk, England. Because of his ill health, he was taught at home with no formal education, his father training him in the fundamentals of drawing and painting. Howard's interests however, did not lie in painting portraits or pictures of animals for families in Norfolk as with his father. He seemed to find archaeology of much more interest at a very young age.

Early Work

Carter began work in 1891, at the age of 17, as a "tracer", for the Egyptian Exploration Fund,(EEF) copying inscriptions and paintings near Alixandria, Egypt. He worked on the excavation of Beni Hasan, the gravesite of the princes of Middle Egypt, c. 2000 B.C.E. Later he came under the tutelage of William Flinders Petrie. Petrie, who was one of the greatest archaeologists of his time, had little faith in Carter's ability to be a great archaelogist but through his accomplishments, Howard proved him wrong. He found the remains of Queen Hatshepsut's tomb in Deir el-Bahri and was appointed Principle Archaeologist of the EEF. Here he honed his drawing, excavation and restoration skills. In 1899, at the age of 25, Carter was offered a position working for the Egyptian Antiquities Service. He was appointed 1st Inspector General of Monument for Upper Egypt. This job included supervising and controlling archaeological "digs" along the Nile River. He later resigned as a result of a dispute between Egyptian site guards and a group of drunken French tourists in 1905.

Tutankhamun's Tomb

Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amun in the Valley of the Kings

After several hard years, Carter was introduced, in 1907, to George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, an eager amateur who was prepared to supply the funds necessary for Carter's work to continue. Soon, Carter was supervising all of Lord Carnarvon's excavations.

Lord Carnarvon financed Carter's search for the tomb of a previously unknown Pharaoh, Tut-ankh-Amun, whose existence Carter had discovered. After a few months of fruitless searching, Carnarvon was becoming dissatisfied with the lack of return from his investment and, in 1922, he gave Carter one more season of funding to find the tomb. Shortly after this ultimatum, on November 4, 1922, Carter found the steps leading to Tut-ankh-Amun's tomb (subsequently designated KV62), by far the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings (site near Luxor where some 27 kings had been buried). He wired Lord Carnarvon to come, and with Lord Carnarvon, Carnarvon's daughter, and others in attendance, Carter made the famous "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of the doorway, and was able to peer in by the light of a candle and see that many of the gold and ebony treasures were still in place. This only happened after 70,000 tons of sand had been diplaced. Still, he did not yet know at that point whether it was "a tomb or merely a cache," but he did see a promising sealed doorway between two sentinel statues.

The next several weeks were spent carefully cataloguing the contents of the antechamber. On February 16, 1923, Carter opened the sealed doorway, and found that it did indeed lead to a burial chamber, and he got his first glimpse of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. The find was reported as glorious with furniture, vases and other artifacts along with a golden wall sheilding the tomb all intact. Finding King Tut tomb re-created an interest in the glories of Ancient Egypt. Carter reported that it was like stepping into a funeral of a 3200 year old king. It wasn't just a scientific research but brought out the human aspect. The discovery came just after World War I and the world seemed eager for something spectacular.

Tutankhamun coffinette

NB: Carter's own papers suggest that he, Lord Carnarvon & Lady Evelyn Herbert entered the tomb shortly after its discovery - without waiting for the arrival of Egyptian officials (as stipulated in their excavation permit). Some bizarre and demonstrably inaccurate theories have been offered about the exact extent of the excavators' rule-breaking; but it seems likely that it was (in reality) merely a case of impatient curiosity. They probably felt entitled to look because they had invested time, effort and money on the project for many years - it is widely accepted that their relationship with the government officials interested in their find was strained to the point where tacit non-cooperation became almost second nature to Carter.

While unwrapping the linens of the mummy, presumably looking for treasure, the skull of the ancient king fell away from the body. The impact from its fall out of the tomb made a dent in the skull. Egyptians believed a king could only be immortal if the body rested undisturbed, so some believe the name of the king must still be spoken today as a remembrance.

Later work & Death

After cataloguing the extensive finds, which took ten years, Carter retired from archaeology and became a collector. He visited the United States in 1924, and gave a series of illustrated lectures in New York City which were attended by very large and enthusiastic audiences. He died in England in 1939 at the age of 64. The archaeologist's death, so long after the opening of the tomb, is the most common piece of evidence put forward by skeptics to refute the idea of a curse (the "Curse of the Pharaohs") plaguing the party that violated Tut-ankh-Amun's tomb. The other 11 people in the party at the opening of the tomb all deceased within seven years of the event including the Earl of Cararvon who died of pneumonia. Many warnings and letters came to Mr.Carter about the dangers of opening the tombs.

Howard Carter is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery in West London. On his gravestone is written: "May your spirit live, May you spend millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness." (from the Wishing Cup of Tutankhamun)

Howard Carter in popular culture

Howard Carter has represented in a number of films, television programmes, etc.

  • Egypt - a 2005 BBC One television series which featured the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Carter in the first two 60 minute episodes.
  • In Search of the Pharaohs - a 30-minute cantata for narrator, junior choir and piano by composer Robert Steadman, commissioned by the City of London Freemen's School which uses extracts from Carter's diaries as its text.
  • A paraphrased extract from Howard Carter's diary of November 26 1922 is used as the plaintext for Part 3 of the encrypted Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
  • Carter was the loose inspiration for the alter ego of the comic book superhero Hawkman—"Carter Hall," an archaeologist digging in Egypt, introduced in Flash Comics #1 (1940).
  • Carter is a recurring character in the Amelia Peabody series of mystery novels by Elizabeth Peters; the discovery of Tutankhamon's tomb is fictionalized in Peters' Tomb of the Golden Bird.
  • In the game Wheels of Salvation adventure game hosted on Miniclip.com, the player controls an Indiana Jones-like character named Dr. Carter.

Further reading

  • T.G.H James, Howard Carter – The Path to Tutankhamun, London: Tauris Parke, 2001.
  • Reeves, N. and Taylor, J.H., Howard Carter: Before Tutankhamun, London: British Museum Press, 1992.
  • The History Of Howard Carter By Dr. Thomas Schwarz

External links


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