Howard Carter

1874 - 1939

Those that recognize the name Howard Carter, usually associate it with the discovery of

King Tutankhamen’s tomb. The amount of preserved artifacts provided information to piece

together key pieces of an archaeological puzzle, whilst the richness of the treasures caused

the media to make King Tutankhamen a household name. As excavator and discoverer of the

famous tomb of King Tut, Howard Carter has won a place in the archaeologist hall of fame.

However, few people know anything more about Howard Carter than his exploits involving the

tomb.

Howard Carter was born on May 9th, 1874 in Kensington, London, the youngest son of eight

children. He grew up in Swaffham in the county of Norfolk, England. He received no formal

education, although his father Samuel Carter was an artist and trained him in the

fundamentals of drawing and painting. Even though Howard Carter developed an above

average artistic skill, he had no ambition to continue the family business of painting portraits

of pets and families for the local landowners. Instead, Howard Carter sought the opportunity

to go to Egypt and work for the Egyptian Exploration Fund as a tracer, a person who copies

drawings and inscriptions on paper for further studying. In October of 1891 at the age of 17,

Howard Carter set sail for Alexandria, Egypt, which was his first journey outside of Britain.

Howard Carter’s first project was at Bani Hassan, the gravesite of the Sovereign Princes of

Middle Egypt during 2000 B.C. His task was to record and copy the scenes from the walls of

the tomb. At this early age, Howard Carter was a diligent worker with much enthusiasm. He

would work the day through and then sleep with the bats in the tomb.

In 1892, Carter joined Flinders Petrie, at el-Amarna. Flinders was a strong field director and

one of the most credible archaeologists of his time. Petrie believed Carter would never

become a good excavator, but Carter proved him wrong when he unearthed several important

finds at the site of el-Amarna, the capital of Egypt during the sovereignty of Akhenaten. Under

Petrie’s demanding tutorage, Carter became an archaeologist, while keeping up with his

artistic skills. He sketched many of the unusual artifacts found at el Amarna.

Carter was appointed Principle Artist to the Egyptian Exploration Fund for the excavations

of Deir el-Babri, the burial place of Queen Hatshepsut. This experience allowed him to perfect

his drawing skills and strengthen his excavation and restoration technique. In 1899, at the age

of 25, his hard work paid off, when he was offered the job of First Chief Inspector General of

Monuments for Upper Egypt. His responsibilities included supervising and controlling

archaeology along the Nile Valley.

Carter’s employment at the Egyptian Antiquities Service came to an end in an unfortunate

incident between the Egyptian site guards and a number of drunken French tourists. When the

tourists became violently abusive to the guards, Carter allowed the guards to defend

themselves. The French tourists, enraged, went through some high officials including the

Egyptian Consul General Lord Cromer and called for Carter to make a formal apology. Carter

refused, standing by his belief that he made the right decision. The incident gave Carter a bad

name and caused him to be posted to the Nile Delta town of Tanta, a place with very little

archaeological involvement. This forced Carter to resign from the Antiquities Service in 1905.

From 1905-1907, Carter sustained a hard existence after resigning from the Antiquities

Service. He had to make a living by working as a commercial watercolorist or sometimes a

guide for tourists. In 1908 Carter was introduced to the fifth Earl of Carnarvon by Gaston

Maspero. The partnership proceeded happily, as each partner’s personality seemed to

compliment the others.

Carter became the Supervisor of the Excavations funded by Carnarvon in Thebes and by

1914 Carnarvon owned one of the most valuable collections of Egyptian artifacts held in

private hands. However, Howard Carter had still more ambitious aspirations. He had his eye

on finding the tomb of a fairly unknown pharaoh at the time, King Tutankhamun, after various

clues to its existence had been found, Carter tore up the Valley of the Kings looking for

Tutankhamun� s burial place, but season after season produced little more than a few

artifacts. He worked in the field with Lord Carnarvon in the west valley at the tomb of

Amenophis III in 1915 and in the main valley from 1917-1922. 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.

Carter was confident and the challenge went on as work began on November 4, 1922. It took

only three days before the top of a staircase was unearthed. Almost three weeks later the

staircase was entirely excavated and the full side of the plaster block was visible. By

November 26, the first plaster block was removed, the chip filling the corridor was emptied,

and the second plaster was ready to be taken apart. At about 4 P.M. that day, Carter broke

through the second plaster block and made one of the discoveries of the century, the tomb of

King Tutankhamen.

The tomb’s artifacts took a decade to catalogue. During this time, Lord Carvarvon died in

Cairo of pneumonia. After the media got wind of the treasures of King Tutankhamun and the

death of Lord Carnarvon, the hype about a mummy’s curse set the media on fire. Much to

Carter� s displeasure, letters poured in from spiritualist from around the world, selling advice

and warnings from "beyond the grave."

Finally, the artifacts were sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the corpse of the young

king was studied and laid back to rest. After his work was done with King Tutankhamen,

Carter no longer worked in the field. He retired from the archaeology business. He took up the

pursuit of collecting Egyptian antiquities and, indeed, became a very successful collector.

Often, toward the end of his life, he could be found at the Winter Palace Hotel at Luxor, sitting

by himself in willful isolation. He died in Albert Court, Kensington, London on March 2, 1939.

References:

Ceram, C.W. Gods, Graves & Scholars. New York: Random House, 1986. 203.

Clayton, Peter, A. "A Chronicle of the Pharaohs." Thames and Hudson 1994.

Hobson, Christine. "Exploring the World of the Pharaohs." Thames and Hudson 1991.

Lancaster, Pat. "Howard Carter: 70 Years After Tutankhamen." The Middle East Feb. 30-32.

Reeves, Nicholas & Richard H. Wilkinson. "The Complete Valley of the Kings." Thames and Hudson 1996.

Written by: Rachel Frisk