Archive

Marking the centenary of the greatest archaeological find in history, other “wonderful things” in the shape of documents, drawings and photographs are on ...

The exhibition points out that “many stories have been told about the image and who the boy was and his role in the excavation.” A group of Egyptian schoolchildren stopped in front of the photo the other day listening very attentively to the explanations of their teachers. There is then a space dedicated to “the long search” – a period that began after a proclamation in 1913 by excavation sponsor Theodore Davis that the Valley is exhausted; enter Carnarvon, who hired Carter, as he was obsessed with the idea that there was still a tomb to be found. The exhibition also explains the conservation challenges faced by the archaeologists and the solutions they came up with to preserve the objects. A letter from Carter to Egyptologist Alan Gardiner describes some of the emblematic artefacts observed in the antechamber: carts, beds with strange animal shapes, two life-size figures of guardians... A page from Carter’s excavation diary contains the account of that Great Moment in his own handwriting. While it is written on a vaulting that the body of Tutankhamun is still in the sarcophagus, it was, in fact, removed from the stone coffin years ago and is exhibited in the same enclosure, but in a modern heated urn installed in the antechamber. The kites spotted en route over the English countryside bring to mind the birds that fly over the pristine skies of Luxor, which are represented in pharaonic temples and tombs as divine creatures. A photo shows him at the age of 19, the same age as Tutankhamun when he died. These same birds are also present in Carter’s paintings, such as the 1895 watercolor of a falcon in the chapel of Anubis in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. Carter was an excellent draughtsman who came to archaeology precisely because of his artistic ability. In one passage, she recalls the excitement of visiting the tomb while it was being emptied and how Carter sent a donkey to fetch her home like someone might send a cab. Open until February 5, 2023, Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive, invites visitors to “see beyond” the golden treasures of the young Pharaoh and explore the complexity of the discovery as it unfolded.