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- LONDON - The discovery of
Tutankhamun's tomb was an event more thrilling and dramatic than anything
H. Rider Haggard or Hollywood ever conceived. Instantly the names of
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the two Englishmen who made the discovery,
rang round the world.
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- The Times was part of the process as the paper had
bought the world rights to the story, allowing us to report and photograph
the opening of the tomb chamber by chamber, from Carter's discovery of
the first step in November 1922 to the opening of the innermost coffin
in October 1925.
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- Yet more sensational headlines were generated when
Carnarvon died soon afterwards from an infected mosquito bite. The pharaoh's
curse seemed a reality. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was convinced that Carnarvon
had breathed in deadly germs placed in the burial chamber by ancient
Egyptian priests to punish grave robbers. As Carnarvon died at 2 a.m.
on April 5, 1923, all the lights in Cairo went out. His son, Lord Porchester,
who had just arrived at the deathbed, heard later that the dog he had
left behind howled inconsolably at that very moment and died.
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- Other deaths followed, including Georges Benedict, head
of antiquities at the Louvre, and Arthur C. Mace from the Met in New
York, who was assisting Carter with publication of the discoveries. Yet
Carter lived to be 64, while Alfred Lucas, who treated almost all the
objects, and Dr. Douglas Derry of Cairo University, who analysed the
king's mummy, survived.
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- Carnarvon had come to Egypt on medical advice. He was
extremely rich but liked a return on his investments - hence his decision
to back Carter's prospecting.
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- Between 1908 and 1912 they had prospected the West
Bank of the Nile, discovering the remarkable wooden Carnarvon tablet
with the ink inscription still legible. In 1919-21 Carter had prospected
a whole section of the Valley of the Kings, systematically excavating
down to bedrock, but his concession only had a few weeks to run when
on the morning of November 4, 1922, beneath a corner of the tomb of Ramasses
VI, he saw what looked like a step hewn in the solid rock.
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- It led to a doorway blocked with stones, plastered over
and bearing what Carter instantly recognized as the seals of a royal
tomb. Digging on they reached a second blocked aperture and then a third,
bearing the name that was to echo round the world " NebkheprureTutunkhamun.
The next three years, culminating in the opening of the inner coffin,
were perhaps the most remarkable in the history of archaeology.
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- Carter promptly sent his patron a cable which read: "At
Last Have Made Wonderful Discovery In The Valley. A Magnificent Tomb
With Seals Intact. Re-covered Same For Your Arrival. Congratulations."
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- Following Carnarvon's arrival at Luxor less than three
weeks later came what Carter called "the day of days, the most
wonderful that I shall ever live through, and certainly one whose like
I can never hope to see again." According to Carter's journal, the
first impression as they peered into the gloom of the tomb "suggested
the property room of an opera of a vanished civilization." This
was the treasure of treasures " life-sized gilded figures, vases,
lamps, bedsteads, a throne, sections of gilded chariot.
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- For Carter, there followed a slow, three-year process
of discovery. All was done in accordance with strict archaeological
practice, the contents photographed and recorded before being moved.
It was not until January 5, 1924, that our man reported: "The doors
of the second shrine stood fully revealed before our gaze completely gilt,
with magnificently incised scenes in relief of King Tutankhamun in
various attitudes of worshipping, with at the top and bottom, bolts of
ebony, and in the center, staples of bronze fastened by cord, on which
the sealing is still intact." Carefully the cord was severed and
the doors opened, revealing a third shrine of gold throughout: "The
sight was dazzling, superb, almost blinding in its effect."
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- The climax came with the opening of the fourth shrine,
which contained an enormous sarcophagus of crystalline sandstone with
the lid firmly in place. In the strange mystic mauve light emerged the
figures of four goddesses.
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- On February 12, 1925, came Carter's greatest moment of
glory. He wrote: "Amid intense silence, the huge slab weighing
over a ton and a quarter, rose from its bed." Carter rolled back
the linen shrouds one by one, to reveal the "golden effigy of the
young boy king of magnificent workmanship."
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- There has never been an archaeological find like it.
Here were objects in gold turquoise, lapis lazulae, more gorgeous and
colorful than anything the world had seen. The finds included superb
furniture, jewelry and everyday objects such as the King's flywhisk and
camp bed.
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- Other great archaeological finds have followed, such
as the Terracotta Army in China, but none has been so rich, so varied
or so dramatically unveiled as Tutankhamun's.
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