Uncovering Tuts Tomb

(Picture Essay of the Day)

Eighty-eight years ago today, on November 4, 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter uncovered the first traces of what would prove to be one of Egyptology’s most celebrated finds. The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen was discovered largely intact, making it the only tomb in the Valley of the Kings to escape plunder. After more than three weeks of excavation and exploration, Carter finally set eyes on the treasures contained in Tut’s tomb. He recorded in his diary:

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.

Carter spent the next ten years removing and cataloging the tomb’s contents, which are described by Britannica:

Inside his small tomb, the king’s mummy lay within a nest of three coffins, the innermost of solid gold, the two outer ones of gold hammered over wooden frames. On the king’s head was a magnificent golden portrait mask, and numerous pieces of jewelry and amulets lay upon the mummy and in its wrappings. The coffins and stone sarcophagus were surrounded by four text-covered shrines of hammered gold over wood, which practically filled the burial chamber. The other rooms were crammed with furniture, statuary, clothes, chariots, weapons, staffs, and numerous other objects.
Carter’s discoveries sparked a new wave of Egyptomania, as scholars and armchair archaeologists alike marveled at the objects that had been buried with the boy king. According to Britannica:

Egyptomania endured until World War II, influencing the whole Art Deco movement and inspiring writers from Thomas Mann to Agatha Christie. The Mummy (1932) and its successors preserved the idea of mysterious Egypt, while Claudette Colbert’s Cleopatra (1932) saw history as an excuse for spectacle, a tradition continued by Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra (1963). Architects used Egypt’s pure lines and forms (now seen as modern), sometimes combining them with elaborate Egyptianizing decoration as in New York’s Chrysler Building (1930). Domestic Egyptianizing architecture, however, was rare except in California, where it was perhaps inspired by the sunny climate and Hollywood’s fantasy-based film industry.

The treasures of Tutankhamen ultimately resided in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, but they were occasionally sent on tours of the world, perhaps most notably in the 1970s. This sparked another wave of Egyptomania in the U.S., with “King Tut” permeating popular culture in the so thoroughly that he inspired a popular novelty song by comedian Steve Martin.