tutankhamun treasures of the goldern pharaoh

There are poignant objects with personal, family resonance (the king’s mummified, stillborn children, and a lock of his grandmother’s hair) food and drink for the next world (chickpeas and lentils, joints of meat, a basket of dates, vintage wine from the royal vineyards). They range from the mundane (the boy-king’s loincloth, shaving equipment, and first-aid kit) to the highly symbolic (his leopard-skin cloak, wooden paddles to row him to the afterlife, and a ritual torch shaped like the hieroglyph for ‘life’). In total, the grave goods interred with Tutankhamun numbered more than 5,000 separate objects. What Carter and Carnarvon had discovered was, in every sense, a treasure trove, a hoard of precious objects fit for a king. When Carnarvon, unable to bear the suspense any longer, asked: ‘Can you see anything?’ Carter’s now-famous reply came back: ‘Yes, yes, wonderful things.’ Peering into the darkness with a lighted candle, Carter could not believe his eyes. Eventually, just after 4 o’clock in the afternoon of 26 November, the archaeologist and the aristocrat gained access to the royal tomb itself. Congratulations.’ When Carnarvon arrived in Luxor 17 days later, he and Carter proceeded to clear the blocking wall and the corridor beyond. Carter immediately sent a telegram to Carnarvon, who was some 2,500 miles away at his stately home in southern England: ‘At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley. This was the moment for which the British archaeologist Howard Carter, director of the expedition, and his patron Lord Carnarvon – or, more accurately, their hundreds of Egyptian workers – had been toiling for 15 long years in the heat and dust of Egypt.

Two days later, clearance revealed a descending staircase, terminating at a rubble wall that blocked further access. Early in the morning of 4 November 1922, in the Valley of the Kings, Egyptian workers uncovered a step cut into the valley floor.

Tutankhamun treasures of the goldern pharaoh