Howard Carter The Path to Tutankhamun Read online

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  H OWA R D C A RT E R

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  Howard Carter, by his brother William Carter, 1924

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  HOWARD CARTER

  The Path to Tutankhamun

  T.G.H. JAMES

  TAU RI S PAR KE PAP ERBAC KS

  L O N D O N • N E W Y O R K

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  Revised paperback edition published by Tauris Parke Paperbacks

  an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

  Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1B 4DZ

  175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

  Website: http://www.ibtauris.com

  In the United States and Canada distributed by St. Martin’s Press

  175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

  Copyright © T.G.H. James, 1992, 2000

  First published in 1992 by Kegan Paul International Ltd

  All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or

  any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a

  retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,

  mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

  written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN 1 86064 615 8

  A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

  A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of

  Congress

  Library of Congress catalog card: available

  Typeset in Garamond by The Midlands Book Typesetting Company,

  Loughborough

  Printed and bound in Great Britain

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  For

  ANNE PEMBERTON

  and

  in memory of

  JOHN CARTER

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  CONTENTS

  Preface to the second edition

  xi

  Preface to the first edition

  xii

  1 Early years

  1

  2 Egypt: the beginnings

  22

  3 Consolidation and diversification

  45

  4 Chief Inspector

  76

  5 The Saqqara affair

  112

  6 Crisis and resolution

  140

  7 Five years’ explorations at Thebes

  163

  8 Royal tombs and the Great War

  192

  9 The Valley of the Kings and discovery

  220

  10 The Antechamber

  253

  11 The Burial Chamber and death

  285

  12 The spirit of mischief

  316

  13 America and improving prospects

  354

  14 The royal body, with reverence

  385

  15 A long and steady plod

  412

  16 Non-fulfilment and decline

  439

  Appendixes

  I

  Letter from M. Jouveau to M. Maspero

  473

  II The Earl of Carnarvon’s permit to excavate

  475

  III The Earl of Carnarvon’s account of the opening

  478

  IV The Times agreement

  480

  Addenda

  486

  Sources and Bibliography

  488

  Index

  495

  vii

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  MAPS

  1 Egypt

  xvi

  2 The Theban Necropolis

  167

  3 The Tomb of Tutankhamun

  258

  viii

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  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Frontispiece Howard Carter, by his brother William Carter, 1924 ( courtesy

  Griffith Institute)

  1 Samuel John Carter ( courtesy Swaffham Museum)

  2 Martha Joyce Carter, drawn by William Carter, 1884 ( courtesy John Carter)

  3 William Carter, a self-portrait when young ( courtesy Julia Rushbury)

  4 Howard Carter, drawn by William Carter, c. 1884 ( courtesy John Carter)

  5 The Sporle Road cottage, Swaffham ( courtesy Diana James)

  6 Howard Carter as a young man ( courtesy Eastern Daily Press)

  7 Howard Carter supervises work at Deir el-Bahri, c. 1893–4 ( courtesy Egypt

  Exploration Society)

  8 Howard Carter, Percy Newberry, Édouard Naville and servants in front of

  the expedition house, Deir el-Bahri, c. 1896 ( courtesy John Carter)

  9 Carter’s original drawing of a scene in the Deir el-Bahri temple showing the

  cow of Hathor suckling Hatshepsut ( courtesy Griffith Institute)

  10 Tea on the terrace of the Luxor Hotel, 1903–4 ( courtesy John Carter)

  11 Studio portrait of Howard Carter, 1902–4 ( courtesy John Carter)

  12 Castle Carter at Medinet Habu, Western Thebes. Carter relaxes with a

  friend, his horse Sultan and one of his pet gazel es ( courtesy John Carter)

  13 A letter to Carter’s mother. The inserted photographs show the Edfu

  Temple and scenes in and around Castle Carter ( courtesy John Carter)

  14 and 15 On holiday in 1902: left: with his sister Amy Walker and family

  members on a picnic; right: in braces on a bicycle ( courtesy Swaffham

  Museum)

  16 Howard Carter, Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt, with Percy Newberry

  and Robb de Peyster Tytus at the Palace of Amenophis III, 1902 ( courtesy

  British Museum)

  17 Howard Carter, Chief Inspector of Lower Egypt, in the stable-yard of the

  Mena House Hotel, Giza, with the Great Pyramid in the background, 1905

  ( courtesy John Carter)

  ix

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  ILLUSTRATIONS

  18 Castle Carter at Elwat el-Diban, built 1911. Phyllis Walker notes (1930):

  ‘left window, dining room – right, UH’s [Uncle Howard’s] room, middle

  window, spare room, extreme left kitchen and servant quarters. The rest is

  desert!’ ( courtesy John Carter)

  19 Carter with an unidentified visitor inspects a find at Balamun, 1913 ( courtesy

  Griffith Institute)

  20 One of Carter’s drawings of the Opet Festival reliefs in the Luxor Temple

  ( courtesy Griffith Institute)

  21 The 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, photographed 18

  February 1923 by Queen Élisabeth of the Belgians ( courtesy Fondation

  Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth)

  22 Carter conducts the Tutankhamun ‘mannequin’ from the tomb; the Earl of

  Carnarvon sits on the wal , and to his right, behind, is Arthur Weigall ( cour-

  tesy Griffith Institute)

  23 The first Ford ‘in the desert’, outside Castle Carter, 1923. From left: Carter,

  chauffeur, Mace, Burton, Lucas ( courtesy Margaret Orr)

  24 Blocked entrance to the burial chamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb, showing

  the basket-work concealing the intruder’s hole and subsequent reblocking

  (
courtesy Griffith Institute)

  25 Carter’s team prepare for the day’s sortie into the Val ey: from left, Alfred

  Lucas, Arthur Callender, Carter, Arthur Mace ( courtesy Margaret Orr)

  26 The Press Corps advance to battle up the Val ey; Arthur Weigall on the

  right ( courtesy Griffith Institute)

  27 A convoy of cases containing Tutankhamun objects makes its way to the

  river en route for Cairo ( courtesy Griffith Institute)

  28 Percy White at Ludlow, 1930 ( courtesy John Carter)

  29 Carter with his niece Phyllis Walker, c. 1931 ( courtesy John Carter)

  30 The study at 2, Prince’s Gate Court, 1934 ( courtesy John Carter)

  31 Studio photograph of Carter, c. 1930 ( courtesy John Carter)

  32 Carter at the lectern, c. 1934 ( courtesy John Carter)

  33 A formal dinner in Stockholm, May 1930. From left: Consul-General J.

  Sachs, Mrs Helling, Carter, Mrs Boström, Admiral Lindberg ( courtesy John

  Carter)

  34 Howard Carter with the Crown Prince of Sweden and ADC on board the

  SS Ausonia, bound for Egypt, September 1930 ( courtesy John Carter)

  35 Carter with the Egyptian Queen Mother and entourage in the Val ey,

  c. 1932 ( courtesy John Carter)

  36 Carter with King Farouk in the Valley, 1936 ( courtesy John Carter)

  37 Letter of condolence written by Howard Carter’s house servants to Phyllis

  Walker ( courtesy John Carter)

  x

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  PREFACE

  TO THE SECOND EDITION

  This paperback edition has provided the opportunity for the correction

  of many small errors in the original printing of this book. In making

  these corrections I have greatly benefited from the sharp-eye reading of

  John Larson, Museum Archivist of the Oriental Institute of the Univer-

  sity of Chicago. Other small corrections and changes have been made

  throughout the book, but the few new discoveries and reinterpretations

  have been collected into the addenda at the end of the volume.

  The locations of some of the private collections of Carter papers have

  changed in the recent past. John Carter, the holder of the bulk of the

  Howard Carter papers in private hands, died in December 1999, and his

  collection has passed to his son Jonathan, who will retain the material in

  the Carter family. Margaret Orr, who held the important Mace papers,

  also died at the turn of the millennium; the future of these papers has not

  yet been decided. The Amherst papers, formerly in the possession of

  Terry Eva, are now owned by Dr Bob Brier of Long Island University.

  To Dr Brier I owe a debt of gratitude for drawing my attention to the

  letters from Howard Carter to Mrs Kingsmill Marrs in the Massachusetts

  Historical Society, and to Sharon DeLeskey of that institution for tracing

  the Marrs watercolours to the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts. I

  am also grateful to Angela Gillespie for investigating the source of the

  Bretby bricks used apparently in the building of Carter’s house at Thebes.

  Jonathan McDonnell and his colleagues at I.B.Tauris I especially thank

  for providing the opportunity for extending the life of this book, and for

  handling the new edition without pain to the author.

  T.G.H. James

  xi

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  PREFACE

  TO THE FIRST EDITION

  For someone like myself, who grew up before the Second World War, and

  became a professional Egyptologist after the war, Tutankhamun and

  Howard Carter have been constant symbols of the popular appeal of Egypt;

  although for much of the time it would have been thought slightly de trop to

  show professionally too active an interest in them. The great Tutankhamun

  exhibition of 1972 in London, masterminded by Dr I. E. S. Edwards, not

  only stimulated unprecedented curiosity in the tomb, its contents and its

  discoverers, but also obliged many specialists to reconsider the extraordinary

  achievement of Howard Carter in the management of the discovery. I did

  not myself appreciate the extent to which I had become, almost subliminally,

  engaged in the career of this man, until I was approached by Anne

  Pemberton about the preparation of a biography. In her I was confronted by

  a true Carter enthusiast who already had, to a far greater extent than myself,

  a broad understanding of the many aspects of her hero’s accomplishments.

  She certainly stimulated my interest to the point when a Carter biography

  seemed the natural task to take up in retirement. It is therefore most proper

  that this book should be dedicated to her. I am profoundly grateful to her

  for starting me on a remarkable quest, and for regular support over the

  years. I am only marginally less indebted to her husband Jeremy Pemberton,

  whose help in many matters - not least in providing the inspiration for the

  book’s dust jacket - has been a sustaining factor throughout.

  Anne Pemberton’s happy approach was but the beginning of several

  years’ search and research of a kind I had never undertaken before, in the

  course of which I received help and stimulation from a wide range of

  friends, colleagues, private owners of documents, officials in public and

  private archives, and others who by personal knowledge or family

  connections were able to point me in productive directions.

  Of those who knew Howard Carter personally, I recal with special

  affection Cyril Aldred, with whom I spoke on a number of occasions

  before his sad death in 1991, about his meetings with Carter in the early

  1930s and of his life-long interest in the great discovery. Margaret Orr,

  who entertained Carter at a dol s’ tea-party in 1924, entertained me more

  recently with her memories, and most generously allowed me to see and

  use the letters and other papers of her father and mother, Arthur and

  Winifred Mace. Dr Harold Plenderleith shared with me his own recol ec-

  tions of working on specimens from the tomb of Tutankhamun in Thebes

  and London, and of his many meetings with Carter in the late 1920s.

  xii

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  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

  Mr Terry Eva, with ready liberality, has allowed me to quote from the

  Amherst letters in his possession. Mrs Stanley Chattey has been equally

  generous with the surviving volumes of Alicia Amherst’s journal. The

  Earl of Carnarvon has from the outset shown great interest in what I

  have been doing, and has readily allowed me to quote from the few

  surviving papers at Highclere.

  From the Carter family I am especially indebted to John Carter, who

  made freely available the considerable papers formerly in the possession

  of Phyllis Walker. Mr Benjamin Ripper, another cousin by descent and

  the native historian of Swaffham, readily shared family and local memo-

  ries and also introduced me to Ivy Wilson who, as a little girl, ran errands

  for Howard Carter’s mother and aunts at the Sporle Road Cottage.

  Minnie Burton’s diary, providentially brought to my attention by

  Rosalind Berwald, who acquired it some years ago, provides fascinating

  information about the social life in Thebes during th
e years of discovery.

  I greatly appreciate Mrs Berwald’s willingness to allow me to quote from

  it. To Philippa Moore and Vronwy Hankey I am grateful for the chance

  to see and make use of some of the letters of Arthur Weigall, Mrs

  Moore’s father. Margaret Gardiner equally generously let me see and

  reproduce extracts from Sir Alan Gardiner’s private letters.

  The help I have received in public institutions, museums and archives

  has invariably been unstinted. In the Department of Egyptian Art in the

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dr Dorothea Arnold has been exception-

  ally kind in making material available from the rich holdings of Carter

  and associated papers, and I have also received particular assistance from

  Dr Christine Lilyquist, Marsha Hill (who has very kindly checked so

  many quotations) and Dr Catherine Roehrig. In Chicago I was greeted

  most warmly by the former and present Directors of the Oriental Insti-

  tute, Dr Janet Johnson and Dr William Sumner, and given most creative

  help by John Larson, the archivist of the Oriental Institute Museum,

  whose contributions to this biography are many and various. In the

  Cleveland Museum of Art the Director, Dr Evan Turner, the Curator of

  Ancient Art, Dr Arielle Kozloff, and the Archivist, Virginia Krumholz,

  were more than liberal in their help. In distant Portland, Mr Thomas

  Vaughan, former Director of the Oregon Historical Society, most gener-

  ously made the facilities of his remarkably well organized institution

  available to me, with the assistance of his Associate Director Millard

  McClung, and Chief Librarian Louis Flannery. From the Detroit Institute

  of Arts, Dr William Peck readily provided information and copies of

  documents on request; as did Julie Bledsloe, Registrar of the Biltmore

  Estate, to which source I was generously directed by the late James

  Manning. Dr Rita Freed, of the Department of Egyptian and Ancient

  Near Eastern Art in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, was characteristi-

  cally helpful; so too my colleagues at the British Museum, Terence

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  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

  Mitchell and Dr John Curtis, former and present Keepers of Western

  Asiatic Antiquities, and Marjorie Caygill in the Director’s Office.

  In my old Department of Egyptian Antiquities the present Keeper,

  Vivian Davies, and his staff have invariably been welcoming and helpful,