How was King Tut s tomb discovered 100 years ago Grit and luck HEAD TOPICS
How was King Tut s tomb discovered 100 years ago Grit and luck
10/22/2022 9:02:00 PM The 1922 discovery became a global media sensation—and captured the imagination of millions
Source National Geographic
The 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb became a global media sensation—and captured the imagination of millions The 1922 discovery became a global media sensation—and captured the imagination of millions Archaeologists and treasure hunters had been digging in the valley for decades, and many believed the heyday of discovery had come and gone. After years of funding successful excavations, Davis was coming to the same conclusion. “I fear the Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted,” he wrote in 1912. When he relinquished his concession, Lord Carnarvon, at Carter’s urging, snapped it up in June 1914. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.News of the discovery spread quickly, and reporters raced to the valley to witness the opening of the tomb. Lord Carnarvon arrived on November 23, and by the 24th, Carter and his team had exposed the entire doorway and found seals that were more easily read. Several contained the long-sought-after name: “Nebkheperure,” the throne title of Tutankhamun. Read more:
National Geographic » How Chicago put Louis Armstrong on a path to jazz greatness 100 years ago 10 things to know about the discovery of King Tut's tomb How Chicago put Louis Armstrong on a path to jazz greatness 100 years ago The ‘Rust’ Shooting, One Year Later: Everything You Need To Know Parents need to demand better schools this November Tom Basile America Right Now
On Saturday's 'America Right Now,' Tom Basile explains why American parents need to demand better phonics for their kids in schools in the upcoming November ... Read more >> I would have loved to have been an early explorer. How Chicago put Louis Armstrong on a path to jazz greatness 100 years agoThe trumpeter from New Orleans was 21 when he stepped off a train at the Illinois Central Station in 1922. Now, jazz events in Chicago are exploring his influence on the city. And then he did “We have all the time in the world” 10 things to know about the discovery of King Tut's tombWhy did the discovery of the tomb of this young king, who ruled for less than a decade some 3,000 years ago, have such enduring impact? It had less to do with who he was when alive than with what happened after he died 😍😍 Probably because if he had worn a mask and gotten vaccinated, this never would have happened. I love National Geographic! It was the only magazine ever subscribed to and it helped my imagination blossom. How Chicago put Louis Armstrong on a path to jazz greatness 100 years agoThe trumpeter from New Orleans was 21 when he stepped off a train at the Illinois Central Station in 1922. Now, jazz events in Chicago are exploring his influence on the city. And then he did “We have all the time in the world” The ‘Rust’ Shooting, One Year Later: Everything You Need To KnowCinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed one year ago when a gun in Alec Baldwin’s hand discharged. All you need to know is Alec's not charged with anything. Disgusting. Alec Baldwin shot and killed somebody and blamed everybody but himself, last I checked. How is it possible this has not been resolved by now. Its not like interpol and Scotland Yard had to be brought in. All the clues, witnesses and evidence is in one confined location. What am I missing? James Webb telescope captures 'knot' of galaxies in the early universe EngadgetA James Webb telescope image has unveiled a 'knot' of galaxies from 11.5 billion years ago.. And the image cleared up. SaneFurryStrug Boris Johnson returns to UK amid rumors he will run for leaderBoris Johnson, who was ousted by a series of ethics scandals just three months ago, needs the backing of 100 lawmakers before 2 p.m. Monday to be on the ballot paper. Seems like, if you got fired you wouldn’t be considered for being rehired. But I’m not in the British Parliament. Yw.. Yw.. Valley of the Kings , a complex of rugged canyons across the Nile from modern Luxor, site of the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes.Flipboard In 1967, Louis Armstrong recorded “What a Wonderful World,” a song that’s known around the globe more than five decades later.Tweet Email Tutankhamun’s tomb, discovered in 1922, is still the most intact pharaoh’s tomb ever found.Flipboard In 1967, Louis Armstrong recorded “What a Wonderful World,” a song that’s known around the globe more than five decades later. Unlike earlier pharaohs who were interred in towering pyramids that became easy targets for looters, Theban royals were buried in tombs dug deep into the secluded valley’s rocky hillsides. By the turn of the 20th century, the Theban necropolis was Egypt’s most productive and prized archaeological site. Considered one of the most revered musical icons of all time, the trumpeter, singer and composer has inspired a yearlong celebration in Chicago that peaks this fall and winter. Excavations sponsored by Theodore Davis, an American businessman, produced a string of important discoveries. ( Graphic: See the enduring power of Tut as never before . Among them were a few artifacts bearing the name of the mysterious Tutankhamun. Like his improvised vocals on early recordings, Armstrong’s trumpet playing was lively and loud — and continues to resonate with Chicago’s current jazz standouts. Carter had developed an intimate knowledge of the Valley of the Kings during his years as chief inspector. “In the end, the trumpet is about the amplification of the voice,” says Marques Carroll, a trumpeter, educator and co-founder of the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective. But before he and Lord Carnarvon could start digging there, they had to acquire the excavation permit, called a concession, which was jealously held by Davis. “With Armstrong, from the top of the register all the way down, it’s got personality, it’s got blues, it tells a story, and it captures you. Here are ten things to know about the discovery, why it was such a big deal at the time, and why it still matters today. Archaeologists and treasure hunters had been digging in the valley for decades, and many believed the heyday of discovery had come and gone. After years of funding successful excavations, Davis was coming to the same conclusion.” Orbert Davis, the artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, compares Armstrong’s fundamental contribution to jazz in Chicago to Michael Jordan’s reign over the Bulls and the United Center. “I fear the Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted,” he wrote in 1912. The lighted suburbs of Luxor sprawl toward the Valley of the Kings. When he relinquished his concession, Lord Carnarvon, at Carter’s urging, snapped it up in June 1914. “When you think Chicago and jazz, it is Louis Armstrong who built that house. “When you think Chicago and jazz, it is Louis Armstrong who built that house. Later that same month, the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke plunged Europe and the Middle East into World War I, delaying a full-on search for Tutankhamun’s tomb until the fall of 1917, when improving news from the war allowed resumption of excavations. Over the next five years, Carter and a team of Egyptian laborers moved an astonishing 150,000 to 200,000 tons of rubble. 8, 1922. The tomb of Tutankhamun was near the center of a crowded Pharaoh’s graveyard called the Valley of the Kings , west of the city of Thebes. The work was hard, dusty, and sweltering under the desert sun. Those five years of pain produced little gain, and Carter’s benefactor grew disillusioned. He’d grown up impoverished in a vice district of New Orleans, where he dropped out of school early and learned trumpet at a home for juvenile delinquents, Armstrong heard the early sounds of jazz in brothels and riverboats. Perhaps the valley was indeed picked over and played out. ( . But Chicago promised him the same things it did other Black Southerners who migrated to the city between 1910 and 1930: prosperity, sophistication and transformation. In June 1922 Lord Carnarvon summoned Carter to Highclere and announced he was giving up on the valley. Joe Oliver, his mentor in New Orleans, had rechristened himself King Oliver and become de facto royalty at South Side jazz clubs. Carter pleaded for one more season of digging, even offering to pay for it himself. Lord Carnarvon reluctantly agreed. King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band dominated Lincoln Gardens, the biggest dance hall on the South Side, at 31st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. The search for Tutankhamun was a true believer’s quest. When Carter arrived back in Luxor on October 28, 1922, the clock was ticking down. Seven days later, a chance discovery lifted his hopes—and soon upended his world. In his 1954 autobiography, he described his first night playing with Oliver’s band as transformative. In his 1954 autobiography, he described his first night playing with Oliver’s band as transformative. Tut was buried in a subterranean crypt in a royal necropolis known as the Valley of the Kings. Tut also seemed to have been a minor pharaoh, with only a few artifacts in the surviving record bearing his name. The entrance to his tomb (walled enclosure in foreground) was hidden from robbers and archaeologists by debris from tombs built above his. “My boyhood dream had come true at last,” he wrote. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.” Al Podgorski / Sun-Times Armstrong wrote that Chicago offered “plenty of work, lots of dough flying around, all kinds of beautiful women at your service. Undaunted by those who believed it couldn't be found, Howard Carter (right) discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in November 1922. On November 4, a member of Carter’s team whose name is lost to history stumbled upon a carved stone, the top of a buried stairway. A musician in Chicago in the early ‘20s was treated and respected just like some kind of God. In his pocket diary, Carter wrote just five words: “First steps of tomb found.” Among his peers in Chicago were clarinetist-composer Sidney Bechet and pianist-composer Jelly Roll Morton, both former New Orleanians who, like Armstrong, pushed the limits of the music.” The next day, the team uncovered 12 steps and descended to a doorway that had been plastered over and stamped with pharaonic seals. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The seals were too indistinct to be read but were clearly unbroken. His soloing helped move jazz from a rough-and-tumble form of dance music to an art form that was more sophisticated and expressive. Convinced he’d discovered an intact royal tomb, Carter cabled Lord Carnarvon in England: “At last have made wonderful discovery in valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact .. “It’s so melodic. Then, in November 1922, just days after starting what was to be the final year of excavations, the team found the top step of a staircase leading down to the tomb. “It’s so melodic. . congratulations.” In Chicago, Armstrong met his future wife Lil Hardin, and they lived in a two-story greystone at 421 E.” News of the discovery spread quickly, and reporters raced to the valley to witness the opening of the tomb. Tut’s tomb had been broken into before. Lord Carnarvon arrived on November 23, and by the 24th, Carter and his team had exposed the entire doorway and found seals that were more easily read. in Bronzeville that remains a private residence. Several contained the long-sought-after name: “Nebkheperure,” the throne title of Tutankhamun. Louis Armstrong bought a home at 421 E. Carter and his companions were elated, but a second discovery cast a shadow over the celebration: The doorway bore evidence of forced entry. 44th St. Ancient officials had patched the openings in the outer door with plaster and imprinted it with new seals after the last breach. Someone had been there before them. The door was cut away, revealing not a treasure-filled tomb but a sloping passage filled with rubble. Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times She was a composer and pianist who had moved to Chicago in 1918 from Memphis. Two more days of digging brought them to the tomb, more than 20 feet underground. The royal tomb was found somewhat in disarray. Another plastered doorway bore more seals naming Tutankhamun. It was Hardin who encouraged him to step out on his own. It was Hardin who encouraged him to step out on his own. Carter made a small hole in the masonry, held up a candle, and looked in. In what would become one of the most famous exchanges in the annals of archaeology, an impatient Lord Carnarvon asked, “Can you see anything?” to which Carter replied, “Yes., to record for Gennett Records in April 1923. Upon his first glance into the room, he declared it “wonderful. It’s wonderful.” ( See the enduring power of King Tut as never before ) The objects he spied were indeed wondrous: golden beds, life-size guardian effigies, disassembled chariots, a richly decorated throne, all in a jumble. But Armstrong’s playing dominated, and he was told to perform from the corner of the room. Carter wrote later, “At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold.) 6. Louis Armstrong in a 1932 photo that was shot in Chicago to promote his first European tour. ” Tutankhamun’s tomb, Carter soon learned, included four rooms, now known as the antechamber, annex, treasury, and burial chamber. AP Jazz great’s lasting influence on Chicago Armstrong moved to New York the next year but returned to Chicago in 1925 to record the first of his Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions for Chicago’s OKeh Records, a label that recorded early jazz and later specialized in R&B after it was sold to Columbia Records in 1926. The tomb was unusually small for a pharaoh, but the rooms were packed with everything he would need to live like a king for all eternity—some 5,400 objects in all. Carter had the tomb’s artifacts numbered and photographed, including the life-size statues that guarded the burial chamber. Some of Armstrong’s most famous compositions —including “Potato Head Blues,” “Big Butter and Egg Man” and “Heebie Jeebies” — were recorded during those sessions. Photographer Harry Burton famously documented the excavation of the tomb, setting new archaeological standards and allowing the world to glimpse Tut's many treasures. After breaking through the plastered doorway, he found the chamber nearly filled by an ornate, gilded box—Tut’s burial shrine. Please be respectful of copyright. Touring then took him all over the globe. Touring then took him all over the globe. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Carter extended techniques he had learned in previous work and set a new bar for meticulousness and comprehensiveness. It was an archaeologist’s dream—and nightmare. “He was the first American pop star,” Carroll says. Unpacking, cataloging, preserving, and moving the hoard of artifacts—many of which were damaged and fragile—would take a decade of painstaking work and involve an interdisciplinary team of specialists, including conservators, architects, linguists, historians, experts in botany and textiles, and others. The project signaled a new era of scientific rigor in Egyptology. 4 and Nov. 7. Carter’s friend Arthur “Pecky” Callender, an engineer, built a pulley system to lift heavy objects, installed electric lights, and, when necessary, sat at the tomb entrance with a loaded gun to fend off intruders. 5, Fulton Street Collective will host an art exhibition and concerts honoring Louis Armstrong. Alfred Lucas, a chemist and forensics expert, analyzed the tomb as a crime scene and concluded that two break-ins had occurred in antiquity, soon after Tut was laid to rest. One of the featured art works is Arthur Wright’s “See Me Roar, The Voice of Louis Armstrong. The robbers ransacked some rooms but managed to get away only with smaller, portable items. Chariots, weapons, clothing, and artwork reflected methods of warfare and who Egypt saw as its enemies. (Scholars now believe the thieves made off with more than half the royal jewelry. At the Chicago Jesuit Academy, where Carroll teaches jazz to children in third through eighth grades, he makes it a point to introduce them to Armstrong’s style of playing that is, for beginners, deceptively simple.) Harry Burton, who, like Carter, had been an English country lad of modest background, was by 1922 widely recognized as the world’s preeminent archaeological photographer. He set up a makeshift darkroom in a nearby tomb, and his evocative images helped make the discovery and excavation a global media event. “It’s easy to play fast and high but not to play fast and high the way he played. ( . “It’s easy to play fast and high but not to play fast and high the way he played. Egypt had bewitched its invaders ever since Roman legions conquered the Nile and hauled Egyptian obelisks, hieroglyphs, and deities back to the Eternal City. But the new power of media in a world desperate for diversion after the draining horrors of World War I unleashed a modern wave of Egyptomania that made the boy king a pop-culture celebrity.” Armstrong’s stardom came not only from his musicianship but also from his image: the handkerchief, the gravelly singing voice and the wide smile seen in every photograph, movie still and record cover even in the civil rights era. Soon there were King Tut lemons from California, King Tut cigarette cards and biscuit tins, even a board game called Tutoom in which little metal archaeologists on donkeys searched for treasures. Thanks to Burton’s detailed photos of the artifacts and a press more global in nature than ever before, news of the unparalleled find reached a worldwide audience. Songs such as “Old King Tut” were Jazz Age hits danced to by flappers wearing cobra headpieces and eye of Horus kohl eyeliner. “I think it was survival. Egyptian symbols flowed into art deco. “And the message is: We gotta go on. Hieroglyphs and cartouches invaded wallpaper, clothing, and furniture fabrics. He knew he wasn’t just representing his people but representing the world. 9. Egyptian-themed movie theaters opened in some 50 U.S.” Back in Chicago in 1959, Louis Armstrong poses for a photo from the barber chair at the Sutherland Hotel at 4659 S. cities, adorned with gods and sphinxes, papyrus columns, and faux tomb frescoes. Lord Carnarvon had expected to claim a large share of the antiquities, as was customary for most excavations. When Lord Carnarvon returned to England, he was invited to Buckingham Palace for a personal audience with King George V and Queen Mary, so eager were the royal couple for Tut news. John Puslis / Sun-Times. John Puslis / Sun-Times. Carnarvon gave the London Times exclusive rights to the unfolding story in return for 5,000 pounds sterling and a percentage of future sales. The deal enraged Egyptian journalists and the international press, whose reporters had to scramble for any scrap of news. Tut is still inspiring a new generation of archaeologists. Nowhere was Tutmania more powerful than in the pharaoh’s homeland. Egyptians flocked to the Valley of the Kings to see the excavation. Schoolchildren performed plays celebrating the young pharaoh, with props inspired by Burton’s photographs. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Political leaders and poets greeted Tutankhamun as a national hero. “He reminds them of their past greatness,” says historian Christina Riggs, “and what their new nation, which only months before had won its independence from Britain, may achieve in the future.” Egyptians saw Tutankhamun’s return to the world as a message from their glorious past. ( Go inside Egypt's new billion-dollar museum, deemed fit for a pharaoh . Ahmad Shawqi, the muse of Egyptian independence, addressed Tutankhamun in his poems as the spiritual leader of the Egyptian people. “Pharaoh, the time of self-rule is in effect, and the dynasty of arrogant lords has passed,” Shawqi wrote. “Now the foreign tyrants in every land must relinquish their rule over their subjects!” Egyptians were claiming sovereignty not only over their laws and economy but over their antiquities as well. Share. Archaeology and empire had long been tightly interwoven, with major excavations funded by European and North American museums, universities, and wealthy collectors such as Lord Carnarvon. In return, funders expected to receive up to half the antiquities discovered, in keeping with a decades-old tradition known as partage, from the French partager, “to share.” But Egypt’s new leaders would soon insist that all of Tutankhamun’s treasures were part of Egypt’s patrimony and would remain in Egypt. “The new Egyptian government’s decision to keep the collection of Tutankhamun all in Egypt was an important statement of cultural independence,” says Egyptologist Monica Hanna. “This was the first time that we the Egyptians actually started to have agency over our own culture.” A second great discovery came in February 1923. Carter chipped a hole in the wall of Tut’s burial chamber, held up a flashlight, and peered through. “An astonishing sight its light revealed,” he later wrote, “a solid wall of gold.” The golden wall was, in fact, part of a large, gilded box, or funeral shrine, inside of which were three more shrines and a quartzite sarcophagus. Inside the sarcophagus, Carter would later discover, were three mummy-shaped coffins nested one within the other. Lord Carnarvon joined Carter in the tomb for the much anticipated opening of the burial chamber. Less than two months later, the Fifth Earl was dead from an infected mosquito bite that led to blood poisoning and pneumonia. His sudden demise gave rise to rumors—and many imaginative newspaper articles—of a mummy’s curse that brought death or misfortune to those who disturbed the pharaoh’s resting place. Undaunted, Carter pressed ahead with the excavation, now supported by Lord Carnarvon’s widow, the Dowager Countess Almina Carnarvon. But when Egyptian authorities began taking a more active role in the excavation, Carter stopped work in protest—spurring his new overseers to bar him from the tomb. It would take nearly a year for him to regain access, and only after he and his patroness had renounced all claims to Tut’s burial goods. When work resumed in 1925, Carter focused on disassembling the nested coffins, a herculean task that required clever engineering. The innermost coffin was made of solid gold and weighed almost 250 pounds. Inside lay Tut’s mummified remains, with a stunning mask of gold covering his head and shoulders—an artifact destined to become the symbol of Egypt’s proud past. Yet the man behind the mask would be slow to give up his secrets. A series of autopsies, x-rays, CT scans, and DNA tests performed over the past century have sought to shed light on Tutankhamun’s parentage, life, and death. Yet time and again, the evidence uncovered points several ways and is open to interpretation. Tut’s father—most likely King Akhenaten —and his mother (whose identity is still debated) were brother and sister, leaving their children vulnerable to genetic defects. In Tut’s case, a congenitally deformed foot may have been the legacy of royal incest—a not uncommon practice in his time and place. His birth name wasn’t Tutankhamun but Tutankhaten, “living image of Aten.” His presumed father—often referred to as the “heretic pharaoh”—had spurned the traditional pantheon of Egyptian gods, Amun supreme among them, and worshipped a single deity known as Aten, the disk of the sun. Akhenaten, “servant of Aten,” shuttered temples, seized the power and wealth of priests, and elevated himself to the status of a living god. After his radical father died, Tutankhaten ascended to the throne at eight or nine years old. He would later oversee a restoration of the old ways—no doubt under the direction of advisers and priests eager to restore their standing. His name became Tutankhamun, “living image of Amun,” and he wed a daughter of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti named Ankhesenamun (presumably his half sister). Two mummified fetuses discovered in Tut’s tomb were likely his stillborn daughters. Objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb have led scholars to contradictory conclusions about his short life. Noting the numerous throwing sticks and chariots, some experts have claimed that the young pharaoh led a physically active life of hunting and warfare. Other observers, pointing out the large number of walking sticks and his clubfoot, imagine him as an invalid. Causes of the king’s death proposed over the years have included a chariot accident, a hippopotamus attack, a fatal bout of malaria, and murder. One thing is clear: The young ruler’s death was sudden and unexpected, and his officials had to quickly appropriate a courtier’s cramped, unfinished tomb and round up an ample supply of grave goods, some of which appear to have been made for other royal figures. His successors would try to erase from history nearly every trace of the heretic Akhenaten and his associates, including the birth name Tutankhaten. And so, for Carter and others, searching for the boy king was like chasing a ghost. “The mystery of his life still eludes us,” Carter wrote. “The shadows move but the dark is never quite uplifted.” Longtime contributor Tom Mueller has lived or worked in 48 countries. Widely regarded as the finest archaeological photographer of his time, Harry Burton (1879-1940) carefully documented the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Quotes from Howard Carter © Griffith Institute, University of Oxford This story appears in the .