howard carter and the discovery of the tomb of tutankhamun

He became responsible for supervising and controlling archaeology all along the Upper Nile Valley. This was obviously an important area of Egypt that included the ancient Thebes area. His admirable efforts on the project led to his appointment by the Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, at age 25, as the first Inspector General of Monuments for Upper Egypt. During this training period, Carter also worked under Gaston Maspero, who would later become the Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service.Īfter being appointed as the Principle Artist of the Egyptian Exploration Fund's excavations at Deir el Bahari under the direction of Edouard Naville, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Carter was able to perfect his drawing skills and strengthen his excavation and restoration techniques. At el Amrna, Carter proved Petrie wrong by unearthing several important finds. Yet Carter could have had no better teacher at this point in time. Considered as one of the best field archaeologists of this time, Petrie really did not believe that Carter would ever become a good excavator. It was under the direction of William Flinders Petrie that Carter grew into his own as an archaeologist. It is said that he worked diligently throughout the day, and slept with the bats in the tombs at night. His first assignment came at Bani Hassan, where he was tasked with recording and copying the scenes from the walls of the tombs of the princes of Middle Egypt. Tracers copied drawings and inscriptions on paper for further study. It would be his first trip outside of England, and he hoped to work with the Egyptian Exploration Fund as a tracer. But Howard Carter developed an early interest in Egypt, so when he was 17 years old, under the influence of Lady Amherst, a family acquaintance, he set sail for Alexandria, Egypt. His father, an artist named Samuel John Carter who drew portraits (mostly of animals) for local landowners, trained Howard in the fundamentals of drawing and painting. Howard Carter was born on May 9th, 1874 in the small town of Kensington, London, England.

While Howard Carter's find of the mostly intact tomb of a pharaoh may have been lucky, it was the result of a dedicated career in Egyptology and the culmination of consistent exploration.

Howard carter and the discovery of the tomb of tutankhamun