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Howard Carter Timeline |
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1325 BC |
Tutankhamun died
in the year of 1325 at the age of 18/19. He reigned
for just 9 years and the cause of his death still
remains a mystery.
He was buried in his
hastily prepared tomb in the Valley of the Kings 70
days after his death, according to the death rituals
of the Ancient Egyptians
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1133 BC |
The entrance to the tomb of
Tutankhamun is buried with rubble when work is being
carried out on the tomb of Ramses VI (r.1141 BC – 1133
BC)
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1874 |
May 9, 1874 Howard Carter
was born in Kensington, London, England. He was the
son of Samuel Carter who was an artist and is mother
was Martha Joyce (Sands) Carter Howard Carter was
the youngest, but sickly, son of eleven children
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1874 - 1891 |
Due to poor health Howard
moved from London to Norfolk. Howard Carter spent
his early years in Swaffham, Norfolk, England. His
father undertook some work for William Amherst.
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1891 |
William Amherst arranged an
interview for Howard Carter with Mr P F Newberry who
had been working on a site at Beni Hasan. Carter was
appointed as a trainee tracer
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1891 |
Howard Carter travelled to Egypt
with Mr Percy Newberry as a junior artist with the Egypt Exploration Fund
working on the excavation of Beni Hasan and
and El-Bersheh.
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1892 |
Carter was appointed
Principle Artist to the Egyptian Exploration Fund
for the excavations of Deir el Babri, the burial
place of Queen Hatshepsut and during this time he
worked with the famous Egyptologist Flinders Petrie.
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1893 |
He then joined Prof.
Naville at Deir el-Bahri where he spent six years
drawing in the famous temple
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1899 |
Howard Carter was hired by
Gaston Maspero, Director-General of the Department
of Antiquities at Egypt's Antiquities
Service as Inspector General of Monuments for Upper
Egypt
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1905 |
Howard Carter resigned from
Egypt's Antiquities Service due to various disputes
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1905 - 1907 |
He worked at Thebes and
Edfu and installed electric light at Abu Simbel. He
then worked for Theodore Davis in the Valley of the
Kings. Their discoveries included the tombs
of Thutmose I and Thutmose III
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1907 |
Howard Carter was
introduced to Lord Carnarvon, an amateur
archaeologist, by Gaston Maspero and started
excavations at Thebes
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1912 |
Carter and Carnarvon
decided to extend their digging at Thebes to include
sites in the Delta
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1914 |
Carter and Carnarvon
receive a licence to dig in the Valley of the Kings
from the Egyptian Antiquities Service
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1914 |
Outbreak of World War I
which prevented immediate excavations
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1917 |
Howard Carter convinces
Lord Carnarvon to finance his search for the tomb of
Tutankhamun
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1917 - 1922 |
Howard Carter digs in the
Valley of the Kings but is unable to find the tomb |
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1922 |
Howard visited Highclere
Castle. Carter was given just one
more season of funding by Lord Carnarvon to find the
tomb
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1922 |
4 November 1922: Carter
finds the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb
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1922 |
5 November 1922: Carter
cables Lord Carnarvon and
asks him to come to Egypt
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1922 |
26 November 1922: Carter
makes the famous "tiny breach in the top left hand
corner" of the tomb doorway accompanied by Lord
Carnarvon and his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert.
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1922 |
27 November 1922: Carter, Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn Herbert explore the
Antechamber and Annexe. They find a sealed door to
another chamber
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1922 |
December: The press go into
a frenzy about the discovery of the tomb, disturbing
the work being conducted at the tomb.
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1923 |
9 January 1923: Lord
Carnarvon then strikes an exclusive deal with The
Times newspaper. Carnarvon had signed a 5,000 pound
contract with the London Times, plus 75 percent of
all profits from the sale of Times articles to the
rest of the world. Other journalists are furious about
the deal, especially Arthur Weigall a correspondent
from The Daily Mail.
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1923 |
16 February 1923: Howard
Carter opens the sealed doorway leading to the
burial chamber and the sarcophagus of the
Pharaoh Tutankhamun
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1923 |
17 February 1923: The
Burial Chamber is officially opened. Under the terms
of Lord Carnarvon's agreement with the Egyptian
Director-General of Antiquities, if the site
contains an intact Pharaoh's tomb its contents have
to revert back to the Egyptian Government but Carter
and Lord Carnarvon are allowed to continue with
excavation.
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1923 |
February / March: Howard
Carter, argues with key members of the excavation
team and some are sacked. He then argues with Lord
Carnarvon regarding his attitude and his
'friendship' with Lady Evelyn.
Egyptian nationalists
demand that the treasures of the tomb are sold to
pay off Egypt’s national debt. Howard Carter and
Lord Carnarvon again quarrel about their individual
rights of disposal of the treasures. Lord Carnarvon
wanted to keep all rights. Carter wanted the
contents of the tomb to be kept intact in the Cairo
Museum although insisted that Lord Carnarvon should
be generously compensated by the Egyptian
government.
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1923 |
5 April 1923: Lord
Carnarvon dies in Cairo of septicaemia after nicking
a mosquito bite with his cut-throat razor. Howard is
devastated at the loss of his friend and sponsor.
The rights to the contents of the Tomb of
Tutankhamun are passed from Lord Carnarvon to his
widow
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1923 |
The press frenzy escalates
with tales of the
Curse of
King Tut. The Curse of the Pharaohs idea was
fuelled by a novelist named Marie Corelli. Then Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes,
announces that Lord Carnarvon's death had been the
result of a "Pharaoh's curse".
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1923 |
1923: Howard Carter
publishes the first of his three-volume account of
the discovery |
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1924 |
12 February 1924: Women are
banned from entering the tomb which leads to
diplomatic problems with Great Britain and America. Carter
writes pamphlet to document interference by
authorities and leaves the excavation and locks the
tomb. Pierre Lacau, the French Director of
Antiquities, demands the keys and Carter refuses to
give them up
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1924 |
20 February : Pierre Lacau,
the French Director of Antiquities, is authorized by
the Egyptian Cabinet to reopen the tomb and resume
work. Howard Carter refuses its offer to continue
his work under Egyptian control. Work on the
excavations come to a halt
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1924 |
Carter
visited the United States giving a series of
illustrated lectures in New York City
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1925 |
January: The Ministry of
Public Works in Egypt and the widow of Lord
Carnarvon come to an agreement and she renounces her
claims on Tutankhamun’s tomb. Carter then agrees to
resume work at the tomb of King Tut
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1925 |
25 January 1925: The tomb
was officially reopened with Carter once more in
charge
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1925 |
The inner coffin is opened
revealing the mummy of Tutankhamun |
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1932 |
Conservation work on the
King Tut treasures are completed and sent to the
Cairo Museum and Howard Carter returned home to
England
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1939 |
2 March 1939: Death of
Howard Carter in London - of natural causes at the
age of 65. He is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery,
London
Howard
Carter Timeline |
