DEATH OF HOWARD CARTER

DEATH OF HOWARD CARTER
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“Can you see anything?”
“Yes, wonderful things!”

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Howard Carter was a British archaeologist, who made one of the richest and most-celebrated contributions to Egyptology.

In 1922 he made the discovery of the intact tomb of King Tutankhamun.

Howard was born on the 9th May 1874, in Swaffham, Norfolk, England.
At age 17 Carter joined the British-sponsored archaeological survey of Egypt.

He next served as inspector general of the Egyptian antiquities department.

In 1902, while supervising excavations in the Valley of the Kings, he discovered the tombs of Hatshepsut and Thutmose IV.

In 1907 he began his association with the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, a collector of antiquities who had sought out Carter to supervise excavations in the valley.

On November 4, 1922, Carter found the first sign of what proved to be Tutankhamun’s tomb, but it was not until November 26th that a second sealed doorway was reached.

Carter’s diary captured the drama of the moment.
After making a tiny hole in the doorway, Carter with candle in hand, peered into the tomb.

“It was sometime before one could see, the hot air escaping caused the candle to flicker, but as soon as one’s eyes became accustomed to the glimmer of light the interior of the chamber gradually loomed before one, with its strange and wonderful medley of extraordinary and beautiful objects heaped upon one another.”

For the next 10 years Carter supervised the removal of its contents, most of which are housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

After the clearance of the tomb had been completed in 1932, Carter retired from excavation work.

He continued to live in his house near Luxor in winter, and retained a flat in London but, as interest in Tutankhamun declined, he lived a fairly isolated existence with few close friends.

Carter was rumoured to of had an affair with Lady Evelyn Herbert, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon.
This was later rejected by Lady Evelyn herself.

An Egyptian guide who knew Carter well, claimed that his tastes extended to “both boys and the occasional ‘dancing girl'”

There is, however, no evidence that Carter enjoyed any close relationships throughout his life, and he never married nor had children.

Carter died at his London flat, on 2nd March 1939, aged 64 from Hodgkins Disease.
He was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery in London, on 6th March, just nine people attended his funeral.

His love for Egypt remained strong; the epitaph on his gravestone reads:

“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”

“O night, spread thy wings over me as the imperishable stars”