Howard Carter
(born May 9, 1874, Kensington, London?died March 2, 1939, London) was a British archaeologist, who made one of the richest and most-celebrated contributions to
Egyptology
: the discovery (1922) of the largely
intact
tomb
of King
Tutankhamen
.
At age 17 Carter joined the British-sponsored archaeological survey of Egypt. He made drawings (1893?99) of the sculptures and inscriptions at the terraced temple of Queen
Hatshepsut
in ancient
Thebes
. He next served as inspector general of the Egyptian antiquities department. While supervising excavations in the
Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
in 1902, he discovered the tombs of Hatshepsut and
Thutmose IV
.
About 1907 he began his association with the
5th earl of Carnarvon
, a collector of antiquities who had sought out Carter to supervise excavations in the valley. On November 4, 1922, Carter found the first sign of what proved to be Tutankhamen’s tomb, but it was not until November 26 that a second sealed doorway was reached, behind which were the
treasures
. Carter’s diary captured the drama of the moment. After making a tiny hole in the doorway, Carter, with candle in hand, peered into the tomb.
It was sometime before one could see, the hot air escaping caused the candle to flicker, but as soon as one’s eyes became accustomed to the glimmer of light the interior of the chamber gradually loomed before one, with its strange and wonderful medley of extraordinary and beautiful objects heaped upon one another.
For the next 10 years Carter supervised the removal of its contents, most of which are housed in the
Egyptian Museum
in Cairo. He published
Thoutmosis IV
(1904) and
The Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen
(1923?33) with, respectively, P.E. Newberry and A.C.
Mace
. An account of the Tutankhamen
excavation
may be found in C.W. Ceram’s
Gods, Graves & Scholars
(2nd rev. and enlarged ed., 1994).