Howard Carter: The Man Who Discovered King Tut
Who Was Howard Carter & What did he do?
Howard Carter was from London, United Kingdom and he was the archaeologist who excavated the tomb of King Tutankhamun (Biography.com Editors, 2014). Howard was the son of Martha Joyce Carter and British artist Samuel John Carter, who was known for his art featuring animals (TheFamousPeople.com, 2020). His father painted a portrait of an Egyptologist and Howard immediately became intrigued in Egypt. This time period was very active in the excavation of Egyptian sites and his father found him a job as an artist for an archaeologist in 1891.
Carter worked on a multitude of sites across Egypt under a variety of different archaeologists. While he was in Egypt, he had a variety of roles including both artistic and excavating positions. When working at the Deir el Bahari, he was appointed the Principle Artist of the Egyptian Exploration Fund's excavations (Dunn & Warren, 2020). He was continually promoted up the ranks in Egyptian archaeology and got the chance to work on more excavation sites including the ancient area of Thebes and at the temples at Abu Simbel.
Above are two of Carters most famous paintings.
He received great recognition for his work on previous sites and in 1907 was hired by Lord Carnarvon to lead the evacuation of tombs of Egyptian nobility. He got a license to evacuate in 1914 and began digging where it was widely believed the tomb of King Tutankhaum lay. Carter hired a crew but shortly after this, World War I began and interrupted his efforts. The war ended and Carter was able to continue his work, but it took years to make any real progress. On November 4, 1922 he made his breakthrough when one of his workers found a stone step that led to a secret chamber behind a sealed door. Later that month, Carter and his employer, Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb and found a great deal of treasure. February 16, 1923 was the day that the biggest discovery when Carter uncovered the King Tutankhaums sarcophagus.
The excavation concluded in 1932 after majority of the treasure and artifacts had been excavated. There were over 5000 pieces found within the tomb, and that paired with the amazing intact condition of the tomb this discovery was very influential. Howard returned to London after this discovery and worked as a collector for museums. He also toured the United States giving lectures on Egypt and King Tutankhamen. Carter died at the age of 64 due to Lymphoma and was buried in London.
Above displays some colorized photos of Archaeologist Howard Carter as well as some of the artifacts that were discovered during his famous excavation.
King Tut in Pop Culture
Many believe that there is a curse of Tutankhamun, which is a curse that was activated by the disturbance of his tomb. When the Pharaohs of Egypt were laid to rest if they were disturbed then, according to many, a curse is activitated. While Howard Carter did not face the fate of this curse (or fear it), many people have suffered the curse of the mummy. Carters bird was found being eaten by a cobra, which is seen as unlucky at the same time as Carter called Lord Carnarvon to tell him the good news of his discoveries in the tomb. One notable person that faced the fate of the "Curse of Tutankhamun" was Lord Carnarvon, Carters partner. This leads to one of the many documentaries discussing the curse known as the "Curse of Tutankhamun" shown at the link below...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdcejNA-cRc
Learn More...
Podcast about King Tutankkhamun and the archaeological work of Howard Carter...
In Our Time: History Podcast
A video devoted to showing footage of the excavation of the tomb and a speech by Howard Carter...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a90FT3bEds
Howard Carter and King Tutankhamun are together often seen as the ones who popularized the current day popculture of mummies and mummy movies. The ill-timed death of many involved in the excavation process of King Tutankhamun heightened the beliefs in the curse of the mummy due to the disturbances of their tombs and gave popculture the ability to run with movies, books and other entertainment based loosely on mummies and the excavation process of Howard Carter...
https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-the-mummy
A documentary on the Search for the Tomb of King Tutankhamun that dipicts background information as well as sights into how the excavation process ocurred...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFUiE2MWR_8
His Popular Three Book series...
The Tomb of Tutankhamun: Volume 1: Search, Discovery and Clearance of the Antechamber
The Tomb of Tutankhamun: Volume 2: The Burial Chamber
The Tomb of Tutankhamun: Volume 3: The Annexe and Treasury
Fun Fact
For Howard Carter's 138th Birthday on May 9, 2012, he got a google doodle devoted to him.
More on the construction of and the story behind this unique google doodle can be found here https://www.google.com/doodles/howard-carters-138th-birthday
WORKS CITED
Biography Editors. (2014, December 31). Howard Carter. Retrieved from Biography website: https://www.biography.com/scientist/howard-carter
Dunn, J., & Warren, J. (2020). Egypt: Howard Carter, the Discoverer of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from Touregypt.net website: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/carter.htm
Howard Carter. (2012). Retrieved from History TV website: https://www.history.co.uk/biographies/howard-carter
Samuel John Carter - National Portrait Gallery. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2020, from www.npg.org.uk website: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp82159/samuel-john-carter
Serena, K. (2019, April 26). Howard Carter: The Man Who Discovered The “Wonderful Things” In King Tutankhamun’s Tomb. Retrieved from All That’s Interesting website: https://allthatsinteresting.com/howard-carter
Stewart, J. (2019, May 29). Colorized Photos Reveal the Historic Moment King Tut’s Tomb Was Discovered. Retrieved from My Modern Met website: https://mymodernmet.com/king-tuts-tomb-discovery-photos/
Than, K. (2012, May 11). Howard Carter: “Miraculous,” Misunderstood Man Behind Google’s Doodle. Retrieved from National Geographic News website: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/5/120509-howard-carter-google-doodle-tutankhamun-tomb-king-tut-science/
Tutankhamun Legend Howard Carter’s Paintings To Be Sold At Bonhams. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2020, from Artlyst website: https://www.artlyst.com/news/tutankhamun-legend-howard-carters-paintings-to-be-sold-at-bonhams/
Who was Howard Carter? Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2020, from www.thefamouspeople.com website: https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/howard-carter-36888.php