Howard Carter was born in London on May 9, 1874, and took to drawing and painting at an early age. He became fascinated with tales of Egypt and went there in 1891 to copy tomb inscriptions and paintings. For a while he worked at el-Amarna - the site of the ancient city of Akhetaten founded by the heretic king Akhenaten, most probably the father of Tutankhamun. He then spent some time copying reliefs at the temple of Hatshepsut on the west bank across from Luxor.

In 1899, Carter was appointed Inspector-General of Monuments of Upper (southern) Egypt, which included the Valley of the Kings - burial ground for most of the kings of Egypt's New Kingdom. By 1904, he was serving in Lower (northern) Egypt where his career soon took a disastrous turn after a run-in with some abusive French tourists. The authorities suggested to
Carter that it might be diplomatic to apologise. He refused and eventually resigned.

For a while, Carter supported himself by dealing in antiquities and selling his watercolour paintings of Egypt. In 1907, he was introduced to Lord Carnarvon and life improved.

Lord Carnarvon had first visited Egypt in 1903 to get away from the cold English winters because of his poor health following a bad car accident.  He took an interest in excavating for antiquities, but didn't have much success - hence the introduction to Carter.

In 1915, Carnarvon obtained the concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings, although World War I delayed work until 1917. Carter believed that the tomb of Tutankhamun lay somewhere in the area since remains of the burial banquet and other materials had been found in the area some years earlier.

By 1922, however, Carnarvon had invested a considerable sum of money and he began to doubt that success was likely. Carter convinced him to fund just one more season of excavation. Spectacular success dawned in November 1922 with the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. Carnarvon saw his dream of an almost intact tomb, but died five months after its discovery before the unveiling of the king himself.

For the following decade, Carter devoted almost all his time to the work on the tomb and its contents. He had major disagreements with the Egyptian authorities and his team was locked out of the tomb for a time. With the help of others, Carter produced three volumes of his book - The Tomb of Tut.ankh.amen.  By the time the work on the tomb was complete, Carter had little energy left to complete his planned comprehensive technical publication on the tomb.  His health was poor and he died of Hodgkin's Disease on March 2, 1939, and was buried in London's Putney Vale cemetery.
 
 

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Copyright © 2001  Mark T. Rigby