Did King Tut's Discoverer Steal from the Tomb?

Spiegel Online ^ | 15 Jan 2010 | Matthias Schulz

[Palter]

Howard Carter, the British explorer who opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, will forever be associated with the greatest trove of artifacts from ancient Egypt. But was he also a thief?

Dawn was breaking as Howard Carter took up a crowbar to pry open the sealed tomb door in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. With shaking hands, he held a candle to the fissure, now wafting out 3,300-year-old air. What did he see, those behind him wanted to know. The archaeologist could do no more than stammer, "Wonderful things!"

This scene from Thebes in November, 1922, is considered archaeology's finest hour. Howard Carter, renowned as the "last, greatest treasure seeker of the modern age," had arrived at his goal.

Carter obtained about 5,000 objects from the four burial chambers, including furniture, jars of perfume, flyswatters, and ostrich feathers -- the whole place was a dream of jasper, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. He even discovered a ceremonial staff adorned with beetles' wings.

The "unexpected treasures," as Carter described them, suddenly brought to light an Egyptian king previously almost unknown -- Tutankhamun, born approximately 1340 B.C., who ascended the throne as a child. A statue shows the boy king with chubby cheeks and a delicate face. Tutankhamun later married his older sister and conceived two children with her, both born prematurely. The fetuses were found in small but magnificent coffins.

[Palter]

Part 2: 'Unstamped Things'

Part 3: 'The Break-In Was Faked'

Part 4: Lord Carnarvon's Alternate Story

[Palter]

Tut, revision or not. H. Carter articles are hard to come by.

[hennie pennie]

*bookmark*

[KamperKen]

This issue was addressed in Thomas Hoving’s 1978 book “The Search for Tutankhamun: The Untold Story”.

Apparently with Lord Carnavon’s prior knowledge and approval, Carter did purloin some artifacts which he later sold to the NY Metropolitan Museum of art.

One of the more interesting things in the book was that Carnavon, his daugther and Carter actually entered the tomb the night prior to the official entry.

[Oldpuppymax]

Well Carter did do all of the work. Why in hell should Egypt lay claim to everything? Three thousand years had passed and no Egyptians were smart enough to find the thing! If Carter—who spent over a decade of his life cataloging the tombs’ artifacts—did grab something for all that effort, good for him.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Palter. He paid for it with that curse. /joke alert Carter also found some other tombs, including the completely trashed one made for the daughter of Hatshepsut. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · LiveScience · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[colorado tanker]

[Cyber Liberty]

I had and read that book.