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Ancient Egypt Magazine

Issue Four - November / December 2000

Howard Carter, Archaeologist and Egyptologist: a Personal View

In 1986 Audrey Carter, whose grandfather, Thomas, was cousin to Howard Carter, the discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun, began her studies as a student on the Manchester University Certificate in Egyptology.   Under the supervision of Dr Rosalie David, Course Director, Audrey Carter produced her dissertation on the life of Howard Carter. Exclusively for Ancient Egypt magazine, Audrey gives both an insight into less well-known aspects of his life and her thoughts on having such a famous relative.

 As a child, my mother told me that I was related to Howard Carter who found Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Although I visited Egypt in the 1960’s, I did not think about going any deeper into the relationship, or Egyptology, until 1986 when I began the Certificate course.

The whole project was a fascinating experience. My brother helped by researching the family tree. We discovered that the Carter family came from Swaffham, a thriving market town in Norfolk. Howard’s grandfather, Samuel John, was a gamekeeper on the estate of the Hamond family, the lords of the manor of Swaffham. We visited the local museum and whilst there, were part of a family reunion and met relatives we had not known about before.

Howard’s father, also called Samuel John, after his marriage to Martha Joyce Sands, a local builder’s daughter, eventually left Norfolk and settled in London. His brother, James, carried on the family tradition by becoming a gamekeeper. James met and married Margaret Metcalfe from Bedale in Yorkshire and they moved to Well. It was their eldest son Thomas who was my grandfather. My mother married Walter Carter - no relation - in 1929.

Howard was the youngest of eleven children. He was born at 10, Rich Terrace, Brompton, London, now demolished, on 9 May 1874. His father was now a well-known artist, an RA, and Howard was to inherit and develop these artistic skills under his tutelage.

Howard was a sickly child, being diagnosed a “bad herniary case”. It was decided that London was not the best place for him and he was sent back to Swaffham to be brought up by his two unmarried aunts, Kate and Fanny Carter. He was educated privately in Swaffham.

Howard’s father came regularly to see him, as he had to fulfil commissions from the local gentry. When the Lord of the Manor retired as Master of the local foxhounds in 1883 the Prince of Wales suggested a present of a painting of the Master and the huntsmen and Howard’s father did the painting which was given to the Master at Sandringham.

Another of his father’s patrons was William Amherst Tyssen Amherst MP of Didlington Hall near Swaffham. Howard accompanied his father to the Hall to watch him paint, but when he got bored he spent time in the Egyptian room looking at the collection Amherst had accumulated over the years. It is very likely that this is where Howard’s interest in things Egyptian began. The Amhersts were to be the key to Howard’s entry into the world of Egyptology.

Howard, meanwhile, learned more about painting from two brothers and a sister, earning sixpences and threepenny bits washing their paintbrushes, or scraping their palettes. He also learned about animal painting from the “menagerie” in the garden of the London home. At 15 he began to earn his living as a painter by doing water colours and chalk portraits of, as he said, “parrots, cats and smelly lap dogs.”

In the summer of 1891, Mr P F Newberry, who was working on a site at Beni Hasan, realised he needed further assistance in inking-in the mass of pencil drawings that had been made of the site. He knew the Amhersts, who by now had been ennobled, and he stayed at the Hall. He asked Lady Amherst if she knew of any young artists and she suggested he contact Howard Carter at Swaffham. Howard was interviewed at the Hall and shortly afterwards, accompanied by his father, went to the British Museum to see Mr Francis Llewellyn Griffith and Newberry there, where he was engaged as a trainee tracer. Next it was agreed by the Egypt Exploration Fund Committee that he should accompany Newberry to Egypt at a sum not exceeding £50 and they worked together at Beni Hasan and El-Bersheh until the end of 1891. Thus began, at the age of 17, Howard’s relationship with Egypt which culminated in the finding of Tutankhamun’s tomb 1n 1922.

In 1892 Flinders Petrie asked that Howard be transferred to him at Tell el-Amarna as he needed an artist to do drawings and to excavate. The site was being excavated on behalf of Lord Amherst, who of course knew Howard’s abilities. Petrie left Howard to clear the temple site where he found broken statues of the queen, torsos and chips from them. Although Petrie did not think Howard would make a good excavator, he later acknowledged in his auto­biography that he had been wrong.

Howard continued his development as an archae­ologist when in autumn 1892 he was appointed draughts­man to the Arch­aeological Survey of the Egyptian Exploration Fund and rejoined Newberry at Beni Hasan where he did paintings of dogs, birds and other animals depicted in the ancient wall paintings. He then joined Prof. Naville at Deir el-Bahri where he spent six years drawing in the famous temple. He also learned to speak colloquial Arabic that endeared him to his team of workers in later years.

Gaston Maspero was Director-General of the Department of Anti­quities and in 1899 he was impressed enough by Howard’s progress to appoint him and James Quibell as part of a team of young archaeologists who became Inspectors-in-Chief of five administrative districts. Howard was in charge of the Monuments of Upper Egypt and Nubia with a headquarters in Thebes. For the next three years he restored the temples in western Thebes, Edfu and Kom Ombo. He installed electric light at Abu Simbel and at six royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. In 1902 he supervised the systematic exploration of the floor of the Valley on behalf of Theodore Davis. He was meticulous in his methods and used a grid block system. The discoveries made included the Tombs of Tuthmosis I and III. Howard learned all his archaeological expertise in the field: he did not take a degree.

In 1903 Howard was transferred to the Inspectorate of Lower and Middle Egypt with his HQ at Saqqara. In 1904 there occurred an incident which was to badly effect his career. A party of Frenchmen, the worse for drink, were demanding to go into the Serapeum although they had no tickets. One of the head guards sent for Howard and one of the visitors struck a guard. Howard remonstrated and was insulted by one of the would-be visitors. He ordered his guards to protect themselves and one of the French party was knocked down. The visitors lodged a formal complaint against Howard on returning to Cairo and the French Consul General demanded an apology. Howard refused, saying he had only done his duty. Despite Maspero’s pleas, the situation led to Howard’s enforced resignation. Maspero was upset and Petrie horrified. Out of a job, Howard returned to painting the local scenery to earn a living.

Howard had an obstinate streak and thought himself in the right. He did not take kindly to bureaucracy and this was to cause him trouble during the excavation of the tomb of Tutank­hamun. Sometimes his duties led Howard to deal with robbers in the tombs and on one occasion, he had to lower himself down on a rope for some distance to catch them.

1906 saw Howard working again for Davis, making drawings of objects in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya. It was Davis who then found some artefacts inscribed with Tutankhamun’s name - sealed pottery jars, bundles of linen, and floral collars. These proved to be funeral ceremony items. This find convinced Howard of the existence of the tomb.

Gaston Maspero brought Lord Carnarvon and Howard together, when he advised the inexperienced Earl that he should have the services of an expert archaeologist for his excavations and suggested Howard. The two men liked each other and the financial backing from his patron was to help Howard work towards his dream of finding Tutankhamun’s tomb. They worked together from 1907, except during World War I, until Carnarvon’s death in 1923.

Over the first four seasons together they found various artefacts which ultimately formed the Carnarvon Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In 1915 Carnarvon was at last granted the concession to dig in the Valley, as Davis had relinquished his concession. Maspero was dead, and the acting Director General George Daressy agreed it could be renewed annually until 1923. The two men found the empty tomb of Amenhotep I, but the funeral equipment was badly broken, and they pieced together 54 different vases.

Howard visited Highclere Castle during the summer to discuss the next season’s work, and in 1922 he was disappointed when Carnarvon said that he could not fund another season as it was an expensive outlay for not much return. Howard offered to try to fund it himself and the Earl relented. He was to be repaid handsomely.

The workmen’s huts from the time of Ramesses VI were still in situ and when cleared by Howard’s men, they found steps that led down to the “find of the year” – Tutankhamun’s tomb. Clearing the tomb took ten years and during that time, Howard had to deal with hordes of visitors in addition, which he found irritating. He needed to be diplomatic with them. The visitors included royalty and nobility: the Queen of the Belgians visited more than once.

Carter was greatly upset by the death of Lord Carnarvon, of septicaemia after nicking a mosquito bite with his cut-throat razor. This could have led to professional tragedy too, but Lady Carnarvon agreed to carry on with funding.

Howard did not get on with the Director General of the Department, Lacau, and was furious when in 1924 the wives of the team working on the tomb were forbidden to enter it. The team went on strike and Howard closed the tomb in protest, locking it and posting a notice in the Winter Palace Hotel to inform everyone of the reason why he had done so. He refused to hand over the keys. To be fair, Lacau was acting under the orders of the new Minister of Public Works who insisted the ladies should not enter.

Lord Allenby was due to visit the tomb and so Lacau sequestered the tomb in the name of the government and the visit took place. The court case that followed was about to be settled when a disaster occurred. The solicitor assisting the Counsel was overheard to say that the Egyptian government’s behaviour amounted to “the action of bandits”. Negotiations were abandoned and never resumed, even though Howard dissociated himself from the remarks. The Court found in Howard and Lady Carnarvon’s favour. They were barred from ever entering the tomb again and Howard at fifty found his whole purpose in life had been shattered. It was not until 1925, when the British intervened in a deteriorating political situation that all was resolved and Howard returned to the tomb.

The work took several more years to complete and the amount and splendour of the contents amazed all who saw them. The Egyptomania that resulted continues to the present day with people crowding into the Cairo Museum to see the treasures.

Finally, Howard returned to London and lived in a flat behind the Albert Hall where he died on 2 March 1939. He never married. He is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery and a new tombstone was erected a few years ago.

On 6 May 1999 my brother and I, with other relatives, attended the unveiling of a Blue Plaque on the wall of No 19 Collingham Gardens, where he stayed when on holiday from Egypt.

When I go to Luxor, I make a point of visiting the tomb to pay my respects to Tutankhamun, whose mummy lies there once again.

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