Khazar-khum Wrote:
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> Ummm...I know Carter wasn't Snow White, but
> accusing him of tomb robbing?

What is said is this:

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... In fact, Carter had discovered the tomb before the official discovery date, but kept his find a closely-guarded secret. At the time, tomb-hunting was a popular activity in Egypt, and Egyptian law stated that the vast majority of the contents found within newly-discovered tombs belonged to the government.

It recently emerged that Carter had plundered the contents of Tutankhamun's tomb before announcing his discovery. But he left the magnificant gold mask, and erected a false wall, complete with heiroglyphics, at the entrance, so that he would later be witnessed by all to be entering the tomb for the first time.

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In all, a rather extravagant way of saying that Carter (and Carnarvon) had actually opened up the wall leading to the Antechamber and then to the burial shrine before the Egyptian Antiquities authorities knew about it. This has been well-known for some years, and was first recounted in

Hoving. T. 1978. Tutankhamun. The Untold Story. New York: Simon and Schuster.

I wouldn't say Carter was a 'tomb raider,' though he came very close. It's known that Carter did try to secrete certain objects found in the KV 62 tomb out of Egypt, mainly in fulfillment of his contractual agreement with the Metropolitan Museum of Art (there's the incident of the famous "Fortnum-Mason" crate, labelled as wine, with instructions to be shipped to New York, which Lacau (head of the Antiquities Department in Egypt) found contained the Tutankhamun "Head on a Lotus" piece within. Carter almost lost the Tutankhamun concession over this incident).

Even after being warned by Lacau about taking objects out of the tomb, both Carter and Carnarvon appear to have continued to take small objects away in their pockets, almost every day. Some of these items ended up with the Metropolitan (via Carter), others in Carter's and Carnarvon's personal collections. Some of the Carnarvon collection, discovered a few years ago, can be found discussed here. When the Egyptian Antiquities Department found out about this, Carter and Carnarvon were hauled into Egyptian court, and,in the end, were forced to give many of the Tutankhamun pieces back to the Egyptians (the Metropolitan also publicly broke with Carter about this matter at the time, but retained much of their Tutankhamun items under the agreement).

Accounts of Carter's legal troubles with the Egyptian antiquities authorities and government over the Tutankhamun excavation are also recounted in

James, T. G. H. 2001. Howard Carter: the Path to Tutankhamun. London: Taurus Parke.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2007 07:22AM by Katherine Griffis-Greenberg.