History of the Tomb of Tutankhamen
History of the Tomb of Tutankhamen
During the winter of 1906 Theodore Davis, who was excavating in the Valley of the Kings, discovered in a hidden reserve near Howard Carter’s future working site a blue varnished pitcher with the name of Tutankhamen imprinted on it. The following year he entered an underground chamber, more than seven yards below the ground, also in the Valley of the Kings and location to the north of Horemheb’s tomb. Torrential floods had filled the room that he found with mud which had dried up and from it the diggers discovered a broken wooden casket which contained several leaves of spread out gold upon which, among others, were the outline of Tutankhamen, his wife Ankhesensmun and Ay the “Divine Father.” Days later these two discoveries were complemented by later finding pieces of pottery in a well shaft some hundred yards to the south of the tomb. Among them was a very beautiful long-necked wine bottle, which can now be found in the Metropolitan Museum. Some of the pots were still sealed with lids with the seal of the necropolis( Anubis, the dog, watching over nine prisoners) and the name of Tutankhamen and other Egyptian gods were also imprinted on the lids. One of the containers was wrapped in a piece of cloth, which was dated year 6 of Tutankhamen. Small bags containing contents, which had turned to dust, were found next to a heap of linen had probably been used for embalming and wrapping the mummy. The thing remarkable about these were three semicircular handkerchiefs or wig covers of different sorts, and fifty mummification bandages, which were not cut from a large piece of material, but instead they were woven with edging for the purpose.
Davis and his partners were convinced that they had found all that remained of Tutankhamen’s tomb. To them it seemed that it was probably robbed like other tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Shortly after he abandoned the search, which had gone on since 1903 and lasted to 1909and in that time he discovered seven tombs with inscriptions, and nine other tombs without inscriptions. Davis’s last words he said before he left were “I fear the Valley of the Kings is now exhausted.”
Sir Gaston Maspero was less convinced; he thought Tutankhamen’s tomb must originally have been in the western...