Howard Carter And The Discovery Of The Tomb Of Tutankhamun

The definitive account of the discovery, recording and clearance of the tomb of Tutankhamun, originally published between 1923 and 1933.

The events and consequences of the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb are traced in the discoverer's words

This book captures the painstaking, step-by-step process of excavation, and the wonders of the treasure-filled inner chamber. 106 on-the-spot photographs depict the phases of the discovery and the scrupulous cataloging of the treasures.

This book presents the incredible story of the discovery of those 'wonderful things', and the splendour of the most memorial of all royal legends. Told with style and distinction, it includes previously unseen watercolours by Carter; the story of the relationship between Carter and his patrol, 5th Earl of Carnarvon and his daughter Lady Evelyn; new Foreword by Henrietta McCall of the British Museum; new Appendix devoted to the remarkable Almina Countess of Carnarvon, illegitimate daughter of Baron Alfred Rothschild, whose wedding dowry largely financed the search for the tomb and its excavation.

This richly illustrated book of vintage photographs commemorates one of the most memorable episodes in the history of archaeology: the discovery and exploration in 1922 of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (Dynasty 18, ruled ca. 1336-1327 B.C.). These photographs, documenting every stage in the process of discovery, were taken by the renowned archaeological photographer Harry Burton. Burton was a staff member of the Metropolitan Museum Egyptian Expedition when he was "lent" to Howard Carter, the famed excavator of Tutankhamun's tomb. From the rock-cut steps leading down to the entrance passage, to the opening of the sealed chambers inside, to the first view of the contents of the tomb and the removal of the objects, Burton's beautiful black-and-white photographs show thousands of the richly made and decorated objects found in the tomb. Carefully reproduced from Burton's original prints, the photographs are accompanied by new descriptive text written by two prominent Egyptologists with extensive knowledge of the history of Tutankhamun and the contents of his tomb.

This is the fascinating story of the greatest archeological discoveries ever, the discovery of the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh, Tutankhamun (colloquially known as "King Tut" and "the boy king"), in November 1922. We experience the adventure, the painstaking work, the magic, the excitement and the awe through the eyes of the "tomb raider" himself, archaeologist Howard Carter.

In November 1922 a momentous discovery - unlike any other before or since - was to change our understanding of the ancient world. Until now, however, the marvellous story of Carter's quest for Tutankhamun and its culmination in his unearthing of the intact, treasure-filled tomb has been told without a reliable account of the man behind the discovery and the myths that have surrounded it. Howard Carter's career was a remarkable one: he had arrived in Egypt 30 years earlier as a 17-year old 'tracer' with rudimentary education, and progressed to become the first Chief Inspector of Antiquities in Upper Egypt. An improbable but auspicious partnership with the 5th Earl of Carnarvon developed in which the young Carter acted as assistant and 'learned man' to the aristocrat's excavations in the Theban necropolis. But it was the legendary discovery in the Valley of the Kings and Carter's painstaking clearance of the intact royal burial that was to secure his place in history. He became an international celebrity, simultaneously honoured and vilified wherever he went, but he was also a sad, disillusioned man whose success never brought any reward of happiness. T. G. H. James' definitive biography is both the story of perhaps the most renowned archaeologist of all time and of an essentially tragic human being.

The discovery of the resting place of the great Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun [Tut.ankh.Amen] in November 1922 by Howard Carter and the fifth Earl of Carnarvon was the greatest archaeological find the world had ever seen. Despite its plundering by thieves in antiquity, the burial of the king lay intact with its nest of coffins and funerary shrines, surrounded by a mass of burial equipment arranged in three peripheral chambers. Following on from the first volume's account of the search for and initial discovery of the team, in the second volume Howard Carter recounts the discovery of the king's burial chamber: the breakthrough to the four protective shrines, the revelation of the quartz-sandstone sarcophagus, the king's three coffins (his own of pure gold) and the bejewelled mummy of the Pharaoh himself. Now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series, the book includes over 150 photographs of the treasures that lay within the great burial chamber of Tutankhamun.