The Excavation and Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb

864 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Short note on Tutankhamun's tomb

The excavation and discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb was as a result of the efforts of the Archaeologist Howard Carter and his team. Carter’s discovery of the tomb came by finding steps to the burial near the entrance to the tomb Ramses VI. The subsequent excavated of the site by Carter and his team revealed the greatest ever treasure found from an Egyptian tomb and showed the existence of Tutankhamun. Carter’s methodology for the excavation was that of maintaining records for each artefact and that every artefact that was brought out of the tomb was preserved appropriately. The discovery and excavation of the tomb was a long and complex process but with it revealed much about Tutankhamun.
Carter’s discovery of the tomb came by finding steps to the burial near the entrance to the tomb Ramses VI. Carter used the grid technique of dividing the area into rectangles and marking them off one by one. Carter was able to find the tomb as a result of finding the top step with another twelve steps following down to a blocked wall that had been plastered. Carter described what he saw when he opened the antechamber wall “As my eyes grew accustomed to light, details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold- everywhere the glint of gold” describes the types of treasure that were found in the tomb and that the tomb probably had not been robbed. Carter goes on to recount more of what he saw “I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any long, inquired anxiously, ‘Can you see anything?’ it was all I could do to get out the words, Yes wonderful things”, describes the importance of the excavation of the tomb and the large amount of artefacts that were found in it. .The pr...

... middle of paper ...

... http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tutexcavation.htm accessed 16/5/14
Hurley T, Medcalf P, Murray C, Rolph J, Antiquity 1, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp 91-94.
Author Unknown, 2000, Entering King Tut’s Tomb 1923, Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com accessed 16/5/14
Saunders J, 2012, Howard Carter and the Tomb of Tutankhamun, History in an hour, http://www.historyinanhour.com/2012/11/04/howard-carter-and-the-tomb-of-tutankhamun/ accessed 16/5/14
Kyffin J, 2013, The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the legacy of Howard Carter, The Independent, http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/17/the-discovery-tutankhamuns-tomb-and-the-legacy-of-howard-carter/ accessed 16/5/14
Author Unknown, 2014, Entrance to King Tut’s tomb discovered, History Channel, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/entrance-to-king-tuts-tomb-discovered accessed 16/5/14

Show More
Related

  • Opposing Viewpoints: Demosthenes and Isocrates Address Philip of Macedonia

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jackson J. Spielvogel, Western Civilization: Volume I: To 1715, 8th Edition, (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012), 90.

    Read More

  • Archeological Investigations of the Quin Dynasty

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    Located about 40 miles outside of Xian, a city situated in the northeastern section of China, the Tomb of the First Emperor is one of the famous sites of the modern era and has captivated the attention of archaeologists over the past four decades. The site itself is relatively large, with the outer gate being slightly less hen 7,000 yards around and the inner, underground palace containing “a gigantic pit measuring about 300 square yards was excavated in terraces to a depth of more than 100 feet. Archaeologists estimate the size of the subterranean palace built at the bottom of the pit to be about 400 feet by 525 feet, equal to 48 basketball courts” (Hoh, Erling). Yet despite its massive size and the over 40-meter mound that covers the submerged palace itself, the tomb remained relatively unknown until 1974, when a group of farmers discovered some of the first of the famous terracotta warriors that are spread throughout the site. These clay figurines exist in the thousands, and the three major test pits that archaeologists have started to uncover there are over “7,000 terracotta warriors with horses and chariots, all designed to protect the First Emperor in the afterlife” (Liu, Yang). The second most common group of artifacts came from the massive amount of conscripts, estimated at approximately 700,000 in number, who worked for over 35 years to build the tomb. Those that survived the grueling process were rewarded for their hard work and effort by being killed, mainly in order to keep the tombs many traps and treasure troves hidden. So, as you can guess, the murdering of that many people required a fairly large amount of graves to be buried in, and so archaeologists began to analyze the archaeological remains that were present th...

    Read More

  • The Coffin Of Tentkhonsu

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ca. 1323 BCE. Both artworks are from the same location, Thebes, but there are some differences when both works are compared. The Coffin of Tutankhamen belonged to a very young unimportant king who died at the young age of 18, and was closely related to Akhenaton. The works is much more rich in value when compared to the coffin of Tentkhonsu, it was found with rich gold jewelry and semiprecious stones. The vast differences could hint different social class rankings and also how men were superior than women during this

    Read More

  • King Tut Research Paper

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    King Tut was a fascinating pharaoh at most. There isn’t much on who king Tut was or when he was born or how he died. But some people have dedicated there lives to find out who he was. He was born during the Golden Age. He became king a surprisingly young age. He achieved many things and had an important job. His death was and still is a mystery to most. It was said he wasn’t in his original tomb. But he was eventually found. King Tut became a Pharaoh at a really young age and he had many achievements but died at a relatively young age. (Hawass 29-56)

    Read More

  • Ti Hippopotamus Hunt Essay

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt was discovered in the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty official under the name of Ti. The piece roughly dates back to 2540-2350 BCE, during the Old Kingdom of Egypt; such date can be inferred due to the composition of the work, as works of the deceased in a narrative or singular picture were often created as relief sculpture in tombs during the Old Kingdom period. The painted relief sculpture was carved into limestone and found on the mastaba- rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides built over a tomb- at Ti’s tomb in Saqqara, Egypt.

    Read More

  • Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di’s Mausoleum

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    The site of Emperor Haung’s tomb is located in Lintong, Shaanxi province, near the city of Xi’an in China (Kesner 1995). After its completion in 210 BCE, it was covered by earth mined from an area near the Wei River, sealing it away from the outside world for over two thousand years (Swart 1984). While ancient historians wrote of the unbelievable tomb, hidden under a massive pile of earth, many modern historians simply did not believe it to be true. However, between 1932 and 1970, five figures of kneeling servants were found near where the tomb mound was thought to be (Swart 1984). The mausoleum itself was eventually unearthed in 1974 by farmers who were digging wells and accidentally broke into a vast pit containing life-sized statues of about 6,000 soldiers and horses. A group of Chinese archaeologists were assigned to excavate the site and dig up its ancient treasures. In 1976, two more underground pits were found with about 1,500 more soldiers and horses (Swart 1984). Other than the clay soldiers and horses, brass figures were discovered...

    Read More

  • Rome in The Age of Augustus

    2200 Words  | 5 Pages

    Toni Hurley, Philippa Medcalf, Christine Murray, Jan Rolph ~ HSC Course Third Edition Antiquity 2 Interpreting The Past, Published in 2008, pages 414-443.

    Read More

  • Analysis On The Bust Of Nefertiti

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    The tomb of Queen Nefertiti has never been found. There are beliefs it is located in a passageway that connects to the tomb of King Tut. It is said that Nefertiti and Akhenaten the parents of King Tut although there is no way of confirming. In August of 2015 Nicholas Reeves of the University of Arizona said that he is able to locate the tomb of the Queen in a wall in the Valley of Kings. Confirmation of this exact location has not been given, however it brings researchers closer to finding the mystery that is

    Read More

  • Beauty is More Than Skin Deep: Depictions of Aging Women in Ancient Egyptian Art

    2049 Words  | 5 Pages

    .... Pharaohs of the sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts in association with Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Co., 1999.

    Read More

  • Oriental Institute Museum

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Oriental Institute featured an exhibit focused on the development of ancient Middle East Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East 1919–20
 January 12 - August 29, 2010. And this was the exhibit I found most intriguing and most i...

    Read More

  • Tomb Of Ti Analysis

    1991 Words  | 4 Pages

    After the impressive innovation of pyramids through Egypt’s Old Kingdom phase during 2575-2040 BCE, the construction of Tomb of Ti took place in Saqqara, Egypt. Saqqara served as the necropolis, or city of the dead, for Egypt’s capital of Memphis at the time. The tomb belonged to the royal family of the fifth dynasty official Ti and provided an excellent source of evidence for what daily life was like in the Old Kingdom through narrative artwork of painted reliefs. Nevertheless, the tomb serves the same purpose as others in the surrounding area to assist a spirit of the deceased into the afterlife, but the Tomb of Ti has its own unique aesthetic style when dealing with the simplistic images throughout it. The daily life subjects depicted

    Read More

  • Attitude of the Egyptian State and `Ordinary' Egyptians Towards `foreigners'.

    2463 Words  | 5 Pages

    Emery, W, 1923: `Two Nubian Graves of the Middle Kingdom at Abydos', Annals of archaeology and anthropology, Liverpool University, 10: 33-35

    Read More

  • Golden Goblet Summary

    500 Words  | 1 Pages

    Before he could meet the Pharaoh he had to provide evidence that he really saw them robbing the tomb to the guards and everyone else who questioned him. When he met the Pharaoh he had to provide evidence about what was the object was on the north wall. After informed the Pharaoh that the object on the north wall was the Pharaohs fathers oaken staff. Afterwards the Pharaoh sent guards to the tomb, and they found them and trapped them in the tomb and had gotten them in trouble.

    Read More

  • The Valley Of The Kings: Theban Mapping Project

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt which was chosen as the burial ground for a great number of pharaohs and nobles of the New Kingdom; the New Kingdom in Egypt spans the time between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC which includes the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth dynasties of Egypt (Long 2015: 39). In 1979 an organization known as the Theban Mapping Project was organized to strategically catalogue the present and available archaeological record of the Theban Necropolis in the Valley of the Kings. “The TMP’s goal is to establish a historical and contemporary record of all monuments … and to prepare detailed topographical maps, architectural plans and surveys of their history and condition (Weeks 2000:1).” The book

    Read More

  • History of Cryptology

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    Approximately four thousand years ago in Menet Khufu, a small village in Ancient Egyptian, the beginnings of an essential component to cryptology was founded, the modification of text. In a tomb of a local noblesman, Khnumhotep II, hieroglyphic inscriptions were written with unusual symbols in order to confuse and obscure the meaning of the inscriptions being written. It is said that a nobleman’s tomb’s decorations often “break” with the norms of a typical Egyptian tomb (www.cs.dartmouth.edu). Khnumhotep’s tomb is an example of this “breaking from the norm”, which could signify his importance during his lifetime. The next example of cryptology surfacing in ancient times is about 400 years later in Ancient Mesopotamia.

    Read More

More about The Excavation and Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb

Open Document