In the Valley of the Kings

by Daniel Meyerson

  52 “The modus operandi in force” Ibid.

  52 “I was young” Ibid.

  54 “Bread, water and onions!” Newberry to Edwards, November 28, 1892, Egyptian Exploration Society Archives XII d.54.

  57 “There was not the slightest idea” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1.

  57 “There were rumours abroad” Ibid.

  CHAPTER 5

  59 “From there we trailed” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 32.

  61 “thoughtless implacable men” Weigall, Tutankhamen, 175.

  61 “ground strewn with yellow fragments” Ibid.

  61. “Fraser and Blackden returned” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 32.

  62. Blackden and Fraser published “their” discovery Blackden and Fraser, “Collection of Hieratic Graffiti from the Alabaster Quarries of Hat-Nub, Situated Near Tell El Amarna, Found December 28th, 1891, Copied September 1892,” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology XVI (January 1894): 73ff.

  62 “In all such archaeological research” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1.

  62 In 1923, Newberry and Fraser For a follow-up of the quarrel still raging thirty years later, see T.G.H. James, “The Discovery and Identification of the Alabaster Quarries of Hatnub,” Cahier de recherches de l’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Égyptologie de Lille 13 (Lille: Mélanges Jacques Jean Clère, 1991), 79–84.

  63 “In a week’s time” Ibid.

  63 “I resolutely avoided any possible entanglement” Petrie to Hilda Urlin, between October 1896 and November 29, 1987, in possession of the Petrie family, quoted in Drower, Flinders Petrie, 233–237.

  64 “Overwork is a necessity” Ibid. 64 the remotest deserts in Syria Ibid.

  64. “Petrie is a very bad sleeper” Weigall to Newberry, undated [1902?], from a typescript sent to Hankey by Margaret Gardiner, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 32.

  65. “I cannot again live” Petrie to Hilda Urlin, between October 1896 and November 29, 1987, in possession of the Petrie family, quoted in Drower, Flinders Petrie, 233–237.

  66. Carter returned from leave Breasted, Pioneer, 342. The colleagues involved are Percy Newberry and James Quibell.

  PART THREE: THE WORLD OF NEBKHEPERURE HEKAIUNUSHEMA TUTANKHAMUN

  EPIGRAPH

  67 “Behold! A reed” Inscribed walking stick, 71⅜ inches long. Find #229. For a photo of the find, see Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (London: Thames & Hudson, 1995), 178.

  CHAPTER 6

  71 “What may capture our interest” Cyril Aldred, “Hairstyles and History,” MMA Bulletin 15, no. 6 (February 1957): 141–147.

  71 It was a sign Dominic Montserrat suggestively explores the Amarna period’s meaning for modernity in Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt (London and New York: Routledge Press, 2000).

  73 “striking, almost beautiful” Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings (London: Thames & Hudson, 1996).

  75 “visible and invisible reality” Jan Assman, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 2003), 216.

  77 “marvelous but vulnerable” J. P. Allen, “Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts,” Yale Egyptological Studies 2 (New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar, 1988): 313.

  77 “Rib Hadda says to his lord” William Moran, The Amarna Letters (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), 185–190.

  77 “Gulba is in danger” Ibid.

  77 “If this year” Ibid.

  77 “Rib Hadda says: whenever the king” Ibid.

  79 “praised together with the perfect god” Cyril Aldred, Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Egypt: A New Study (London: Thames & Hudson, 1968), 94.

  79. “Khuenaten is seated upon a throne” Carter to Newberry, April 7, 1892, GI, Newberry mss., I.8/3, quoted in James, Howard Carter, 43.

  80. “I was one who was instructed” Aldred, Akhenaten, 94.

  80 “The rows of complex columns” Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903–1908), 8.

  CHAPTER 7

  83 “I had to run” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 36.

  83 “Excuse my shaky handwriting” Carter to Newberry, February 14, 1892, GI, Newberry correspondence 8/1.

  84 “a subtle recognition of the facts” GI, Carter mss., VI. 2.1, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 40.

  85 “In the course of my work” Ibid.

  89 Driving through traffic in a taxi On March 26, 1903, Carter brought Thutmosis IVs mummy to be examined by Grafton Elliot Smith in the presence of Lord Cromer.

  89 “Under his acute perspicacity” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 40.

  90 “house on fire” Hankey, A Passion, 26.

  90 “one worker held him down” Drower, Flinders Petrie, 91.

  90 “A run of two to four miles” Ibid.

  91 “Fragment. Neck and shoulders” W. M. Flinders Petrie, Tell el Amarna (London: Methuen, 1894), 15–17. Also Aldred, Akhenaten, 54, and James, Howard Carter, 40–41. For photos of Carter’s finds, see Aldred, Akhenaten, 36–37; and Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 38–39. A selection of the fragments (“one lot”) is held by the MMA Department of Egyptian Art.

  94 “with admirable freedom of the branching” Petrie, Tell el Amarna, 14.

  97 “If staying out in the sun” Moran, The Amarna Letters, 39.

  97 “I little thought how much” Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 26.

  PART FOUR: IN THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS

  EPIGRAPH

  99 “I’ve been through the mill” Frances Donaldson, Edward VIII (New York: Ballantine Books, 1974), 554.

  CHAPTER 8

  101 white gloves and a tasseled fez Hankey, A Passion, 47, for Weigall’s sketch of Carter dressed as chief inspector of antiquities. For Egyptian government dress regulations, see p. 60 of this work.

  102 He could tell many stories John Romer, The Valley of the Kings (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1981), 195, for Carter’s imaginative dinner companion; further details in the Andrews diary.

  103 “A few eroded steps” GI, Carter mss., Notebook 16, Sketch VI, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 73.

  104 “Would that Egypt had no antiquities!” Archibald H. Sayce, Reminiscences (London: Macmillan & Co., 1923), 285. For Cromer’s political views and general outlook, see Evelyn Baring (Earl of Cromer), Modern Egypt, Vols. I and II (London: Macmillan & Co., 1908).

  106 “I took my servant’s blunderbuss” James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1790); quoted in Romer, The Valley, 34.

  107 “the rain made it impracticable” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1.

  109 “in the innermost recesses” Howard Carter, “A Tomb Prepared for Queen Hapshepsuit and Other Recent Discoveries at Thebes,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 4 (1917), 107.

  109 “I have marked HC” Ibid., 108.

  109 “I saw a shiny vertical line” Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen, Introduction by John Romer (London: Century Publishing Co., 1983), 9.

  111 “He is absolutely fearless” Andrews diary, January 17, 1902.

  113 “I believe that henceforth” Édouard Naville, The Discovery of the Book of the Law Under King Josiah: An Egyptian Interpretation of the Biblical Account (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1911), 46. [Microfilm. Master negative of Naville, Édouard, zp-699, Schiff Collection, xi, 46p, 19cm zp-699, no. 2, New York Public Library.]

  113 “I regret to tell you” Edwards to Petrie, undated [1889?], Petrie Papers 9 (iv) 54, Petrie Museum, University College, London, quoted in Drower, Flinders Petrie, 281.

  114 “It is certainly quite remarkable” Naville to the Egypt Exploration Fund Committee, February 27, 1898, Egyptian Exploration Society Archives XI a5.

&n
bsp; 114 “I have been able to judge” Naville to Edward Maunde Thompson, January 11, 1894, Egyptian Exploration Society Archives XVII.16.

  114 “Due possibly to Petrie’s training” GI, Carter mss., Notebook 16, “An Account of Myself,” quoted in Winstone, Howard Carter, 54.

  114 “the temple setting” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1.

  CHAPTER 9

  116 “The tomb proved to be 700” GI, Carter mss., Notebook 16, Sketch VII, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 78.

  117 “Ramesseum. Northeast Wall of 2nd Temple” Egypt Exploration Fund Archaeological Reports, ASAE 2 (1901–1903).

  118 “the pigeon on the right” Carter to his mother, August 24, 1900, letter held by John Carter, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 58.

  118 An astonished colleague Arthur Mace journal, February 1, 1900, Abydos, Egypt, quoted in Lee, The Grand Piano.

  119 Another colleague (Arthur Weigall) Hankey, A Passion, 47.

  119 “the reis of the guards” John Wilson to Charles Breasted, November 28, 1940, Chicago House Director’s Office, Luxor, Egypt, quoted in James, Howard Carter, 151.

  120 Who is this Inspector Quoted in James, Howard Carter, 89, from the newspaper Le Phare d’Alexandrie.

  120 Why would “a person of no importance” Ibid., from the newspaper L’Égypte.

  121 “About three pm” GI, Carter mss., V.148, Carter’s complaint against visitors to Saqqara on January 8, 1905.

  122 “On finding one of them” Ibid.

  123. “My Lord, I am exceedingly sorry” GI, Carter mss., V.107.

  123. “Administration des Télégraphes” See Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 80, for a photo of this telegram.

  124. “to drive away these” Quoted in James, Howard Carter, 119, from the newspaper L’Égypte.

  124 “Lord Cromer said” GI, Carter mss., V.148, 33, verso.

  124 “In no disparaging sense” Arthur Weigall, A History of Events in Egypt from 1796 to 1914 (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood, 1915), 175, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 216.

  125. “They had dry bread to eat” Petrie, Ten Years’ Digging, 128.

  126. “You are to come with me” Maspero to Carter, February 3, 1905, GI, Carter mss., V.121.

  126 “I feel the humiliation” Carter to Maspero, February 20, 1905, GI, Carter mss., V.130.

  126 “Pay no attention” Davis to Carter, February 10, 1905, GI, Carter mss., V.124.

  127 “I cannot believe” Carter to Davis, undated, GI, Carter mss., V.124. 127 “I received your letter” Davis to Carter, February 10, 1905, GI, Carter mss., V.124.

  129. Weigall privately circulated a caricature See Hankey, A Passion, 126, for Weigall’s sketch.

  130. “That is the really bad part” Maspero to Carter, January 19, 1905, GI, Carter mss., V.148, 25f, quoted in James, Howard Carter, 122.

  131. The American Egyptologist James Breasted reported Charles Breasted, Pioneer, 162.

  132. the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon Egyptian Gazette, December 14, 1905, quoted in James, Howard Carter, 147.

  PART FIVE: A USEFUL MAN

  EPIGRAPH

  133“I am off to the races!” Carnarvon to Newberry, April 23, 1911, GI, Newberry correspondence, 7/90.

  CHAPTER 10

  136 “mauvaise [sic] caractere” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1. 136 “Living alone as I do” Carter to Newberry, October 27, 1911, GI, Newberry mss., I.8/35.

  136 “I do so dislike” Geanie Weigall diary, December 7, 1910-June 14, 1911, held by the Weigall family, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 154.

  137 “I worked in the valley” Lindsley Hall diary, February 7, 1923, MMA Department of Egyptian Art, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 154.

  137 “The man is unbearable” James, Howard Carter, 240.

  137 “In the beginning” Winstone, Howard Carter, 310. The remark was repeated to the author by Patricia Leatham, Lady Evelyn’s daughter, in a March 1990 interview.

  138 “Friday Evening. I have been feeling” Carnarvon to Carter, February 23, 1923, MMA Department of Egyptian Art.

  139 “Usually when I returned from school” Henry Herbert Carnarvon, Sixth Earl of, No Regrets: Memoirs of the Earl of Carnarvon (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), 11.

  141 “frankly detested the classics” Howard Carter and A. C. Mace, The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen, with a Biographical Sketch of the Late Lord Carnarvon by Lady Burghclere (New York: Dover Publications, 1977), 10.

  142 “He was known to have pitted” Gerald O’Farrell, The Tutankhamun Deception (New York: Pan Books, 2002), 52.

  142 “On one occasion” Carter and Mace, The Discovery of … with a Biographical Sketch, 15.

  144 “We had the whole Devonshire party” Andrews diary, January 18, 1908, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 108.

  145 “It seems to me totally unnecessary” Carnarvon, No Regrets, 115.

  147 The one prediction Weigall, Tutankhamen, 88, quoted in Reeves, Tutankhamun, 157.

  147. “we stand between the eternity” Amelia Edwards, Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900), 12.

  148. As Weigall described it Hankey, A Passion, 109.

  CHAPTER 11

  149 “At every step in Egypt” Edwards, Pharaohs, 12–14.

  151 a “mystical potency” GI, Carter’s diary, November-December 1925.

  151 “Legrain is a fool” Maspero to Weigall, December 28, 1908, Arthur Weigall Archive, held by Julie Hankey, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 132.

  152 “Everyone—natives and foreigners” Maspero to Legrain, March 23, 1911, Arthur Weigall Archive, held by Julie Hankey, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 361, see fn 34.

  152 “Ayrton was not popular at night” Smith to his mother, March 1908, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., correspondence of Joseph Lindon Smith.

  153 “By lamplight, therefore, the work” Weigall, Tutankhamen, 146–150.

  156 “Imagination is a good servant” Petrie, Ten Years’ Digging, 156.

  156 “The warm, dry and motionless atmosphere” GI, Carter mss., VI.2.1.

  156 “Many of the roof slabs” Howard Carter, “Report of Work Done in Upper Egypt, 1902–1903, Edfu Temple,” ASAE 4 (1903).

  157 “May 1901. Temple strutted” Ibid.

  157 “159 L.E. prices for girders” Ibid.

  157 He was not a great artist Thomas Hoving, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978), 27.

  158 “On the left cheek” Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen, Vol. II (1927); Dr. Derry, Appendix I, “Report Upon the Examination of Tutankhamen’s Mummy” (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1963). Also see F. F. Leek, The Human Remains from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1972), 6.

  159 Before the discovery I am indebted to Christine El Mahdy, who makes this point in Tutankhamen: The Life and Death of the Boy-King (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999), 131. She states: “Efforts to wipe out his [Tutankhamun’s] very existence had almost been successful, and had it not been for the discovery of the tomb, he would be an historical nonentity to this day.”

  159 “I watched Helen Cunliffe-Owen” Carnarvon, No Regrets, 129.

  161 He wrote in his autobiographical sketch GI, Carter, “An Account of Myself,” Notebook 15, Sketch II, 46, quoted in Winstone, Howard Carter, 53.

  161 “He doesn’t hesitate to” GI, Newberry correspondence, 33/31.

  161 “I have never accepted Carter” Reisner to Howes (of the Boston Museum), October 9, 1924, Boston Museum of Fine Arts Department of Egyptian Art, quoted in Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 161.

  162 If Carnarvon could be irritating For a photo of a typical Carnarvon menu, see Reeves and Taylor, Howard Carter, 108.

  PART SIX: A FINAL THROW OF THE DICE

  EPIGRAPH

  163 “How did they meet?” Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist (London: Oxford World Classics, 1999), 1.

  CHAPTER 12

  166 “Lord Carnarvon … dis
covered” Weigall, Tutankhamen, 140. For a photo of the find, see Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun, 23.

  168 “Towards the end of the work” Weigall to Griffith, October 1, 1908, GI, Griffith correspondence, 362, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 127.

  168 “It is grievous to think” Griffith to Weigall, October 2, 1908, Arthur Weigall Archive, quoted in Hankey, A Passion, 127.

  169 “No single inscription” Alan H. Gardiner, “The Defeat of the Hyksos by Kamôse: The Carnarvon Tablet, no. 1,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 3 (1916).

  169 “at the time of the perfuming” Griffith’s translation, found in George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, and Howard Carter, Five Years’ Explorations at Thebes: A Record of Work Done 1907–1911 (London: Henry Frowde, 1912).

  169 “I would rather discover” Carter, The Discovery of … with a Biographical Sketch, Vol. I, 29.

  170 “After perhaps ten days work” Carnarvon and Carter, Five Years’; see “Introduction by the Earl of Carnarvon.”

  171 “spoke to him as if” Arthur Mace to Winifred Mace, January 28, 1922, Mace Papers, held by Margaret Orr, quoted in James, Howard Carter, 283.

  174 “fears the Valley” Theodore Davis et al., Excavations: Biban el Moluk: The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou (London: Constable, 1912), 3. Carter refers to Davis’s remark in The Discovery of … with a Biographical Sketch, Vol. I, 75.

  174 the asker being Herbert Winlock For Winlock’s analysis, see Herbert Winlock, “Materials Used at the Embalming of King Tüt-’ankh-Amün,” MMA Papers, New York, 1941.

  175 Davis was preparing his volumes Davis, Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou.

  176 “The absence of officials” Carter, The Discovery of … with a Biographical Sketch, Vol. I, 79.

  CHAPTER 13