The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb

The discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb

Discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb

Several finds made in the Valley of the Kings over the years led Howard Carter to believe that the king was still somewhere in the Valley: a small faience cup bearing Tutankhamun's name (1905-6 season), the remnants of materials used in the king's embalming and of a funerary feast or wake (1907), followed two years later in 1909 by a cache of gold fragments from chariot and furniture fittings with the king's name and that of Ay as a commoner. The story of Carter's quest and his understanding patron, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, is well known.

Tutankhamun's Tomb

After many years of frustrating and meticulous working through the Valley, clearing down to bedrock, the first of a flight of 16 descending steps was found on 4 November 1922, just in front and to the north side of the entrance to the tomb of Ramses VI (KV 9). By the next day the stairs had been cleared, revealing the top of a blocked door, sealed with the impression of the necropolis guards (the recumbent jackal over nine captives); behind it was a sloping corridor filled with debris and, at the far end, another blocked doorway. Beyond it and at right angles was a large chamber, dubbed the Antechamber, and off it to the back left was a smaller room, the Annexe. To the right was a blocked doorway in the end wall guarded by two larger-than4ifesize black wood statues of the king. Beyond that was the burial chamber, almost completely filled with the huge catafalque of four gold overlaid wooden shrines enclosing the red quartzite sarcophagus with its cracked granite lid (p. 135).

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