Died: 2 March 1939 Kensington, London
Field: Archaeologist and Egyptologist
Known for: Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun
was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist who became world famous after discovering the intact tomb of 14th-century BC pharaoh Tutankhamun (colloquially known as "King Tut" and "the boy king") in November 1922.
Tutankhamun's tomb
KV62 in the Valley of the Kings
Carnarvon financed Carter's work in the Valley of the Kings to 1914, but until 1917 excavations and study were interrupted by World War I. Following the end of World War I, Carter aggressively resumed his work.
After several years of finding little, Lord Carnarvon (Carter's
benefactor) became dissatisfied with the lack of results. In 1922,
Carnarvon informed Carter he had one more season of funding to search
the Valley of the Kings and find the tomb.
On 4 November 1922, Howard Carter's excavation group found steps Carter hoped led to Tutankhamun's tomb (subsequently designated KV62) (the tomb that would be considered the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings).
He wired Lord Carnarvon to come, and on 26 November 1922, with
Carnarvon, Carnarvon's daughter and others in attendance, Carter made
the "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of the doorway, and was
able to peer in by the light of a candle and see that many of the gold
and ebony treasures were still in place. He made the breach into the
tomb with a chisel his grandmother had given him for his seventeenth
birthday. He did not yet know at that point whether it was "a tomb or
merely a cache", but he did see a promising sealed doorway between two
sentinel statues. When Carnarvon asked "Can you see anything?", Carter
replied with the famous words: "Yes, wonderful things."
Carter's house in the Theban Necropolis
The next several months were spent cataloging the contents of the antechamber under the "often stressful" oversight of Pierre Lacau, director general of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt.
On 16 February 1923, Carter opened the sealed doorway, and found that
it did indeed lead to a burial chamber, and he got his first glimpse of
the sarcophagus
of Tutankhamun. All of these discoveries were eagerly covered by the
world's press, but most of their representatives were kept in their
hotels; only H. V. Morton was allowed on the scene, and his vivid descriptions helped to cement Carter's reputation with the British public.
Carter's own notes and photographic evidence, indicate that he, Lord
Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn Herbert entered the burial chamber shortly
after the tomb's discovery and before the official opening.
Later work and death
The Grave of Howard Carter
The clearance of the tomb with its thousands of objects continued
until 1932. Following his sensational discovery, Howard Carter retired
from archaeology and became a part-time agent for collectors and
museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. He visited the United States in 1924, and gave a series of illustrated lectures in New York City and other cities in the United States that were attended by very large and enthusiastic audiences, sparking Egyptomania in America.
He died of lymphoma in Kensington, London, on 2 March 1939 at the age of 64. The archaeologist's natural death so long after the opening of the
tomb, despite being the leader of the expedition, is the piece of
evidence most commonly put forward by sceptics to refute the idea of a "curse of the pharaohs" plaguing the party that might have "violated" Tutankhamun's tomb.
Carter is now buried in Putney Vale Cemetery in London.
On his gravestone is written: "May your spirit live, May you spend
millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the
north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness," and "O night, spread thy wings over me as the imperishable stars".
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