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[Illustration]
TUTANKHAMEN
AND THE DISCOVERY OF HIS TOMB
BY THE LATE
EARL OF CARNARVON and
MR HOWARD CARTER
BY
G. ELLIOT SMITH
M.A., M.D., Litt.D., F.R.S.
Professor of Anatomy in the University of London
AUTHOR OF
“THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS,” “THE ROYAL MUMMIES,”
“THE EVOLUTION OF THE DRAGON,” ETC.
_With 22 Illustrations, 2 Maps,
and a Coloured Frontispiece ‘Tribute to Tutankhamen’_
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LTD.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1923
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET, EDINBURGH.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 9
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 11
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTORY 15
II. EXPLORATION OF THE THEBAN TOMBS OF THE KINGS 24
III. TUTANKHAMEN 35
IV. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DISCOVERY 44
Embalming and Immortality—Early Beliefs—The Dawn of
Civilization—Giving Life to the Dead—Success after
Twenty Centuries—The King and Osiris.
V. THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS 65
Tomb-Robbers’ Confessions—Hiding the Mummies.
VI. THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 92
VII. GETTING TO HEAVEN 100
VIII. THE ETHICS OF DESECRATION 124
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
Map of the Ancient East 22
1. Mummy of Thothmes IV 27
2. Ancient Plan of the Tomb of Rameses IV 32
3. The Mummies of Yuaa and Tuaa 33
4. Tutankhamen receiving Ethiopian tribute from Huy 40
5. Asiatic tribute presented to Tutankhamen by Huy 42
6. Part of a mace-head, showing early Egyptian king 51
7. Portrait of Hesi, _circa_ 3000 B.C. 56
8. The “packed” mummy of a Queen of the Twenty-first Dynasty 57
9. Drawing from Book of the Dead 61
10. The end of the desolate Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
at Thebes 66
11. Ancient Egyptian drawing (_circa_ 1400 B.C.) illustrating
arrangement of tomb and temple 67
Map of Thebes 70
12. The great cliffs behind Deir el Bahari 74
13. Lid of the coffin which contained the rewrapped mummy of
Amenhotep III 79
14. An inscribed stone showing Akhenaton, his queen Nefertiti,
and their daughters 87
15. A painted wooden portrait bust of Nefertiti, wife of
Akhenaton 89
16. The skull of Akhenaton 90
17. Cow carrying a dead man to heaven 105
18. Narmer’s belt with four Hathor cows’ heads, _circa_
3400 B.C. 106
19. Three couches represented on the walls of the tomb of
Seti I 109
20. A lion-couch, a mummy with three solar emanations 117
21. Three givers of divinity, the cow, the hippopotamus,
and Horus on guard 120
22. The goddess Astarte borne on her lioness 121
PREFACE
During the period when the newspapers were publishing daily reports
of the progress of the work in Tutankhamen’s tomb and Mr Harry
Burton’s photographs, which gave us so vivid an impression of the
objects that were being found, I wrote for the _Daily Telegraph_ a
series of articles discussing the wider significance of the startling
discoveries. They did not describe the tomb itself or the wonderful
collection of funerary equipment, but were merely a general commentary
on the meaning of the information being given by the reporters from the
Theban necropolis. Nor was any attempt made to collect the few facts
concerning Tutankhamen himself, or even to discuss the events of his
time. The exploration of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, for
which the late Lord Carnarvon and Mr Howard Carter were responsible,
had brought to light the tomb of the youthful nonentity Tutankhamen,
which sheds a dazzling searchlight on one particular phase of the
history of civilization thirty centuries ago. What I set out to
attempt was to interpret the deeper meaning of those Egyptian beliefs
which found such brilliant expression in the luxuriously extravagant
equipment of his tomb.
I have been urged to collect these articles into the more convenient
form of this little book. As they were merely comments on the
descriptions of the actual tomb and its contents the separate issue
of these topical and ephemeral notes seemed at first to lack any
justification, but I have received so many requests for information and
guidance that I thought it might serve some useful purpose to redraft
my articles and give such bibliographical references as would help the
general reader to understand the results that have so far been attained
and to appreciate the value of the more important discoveries that next
season’s work will certainly reveal.
• • • • •
I have used the pharaoh’s name “Tutankhamen” as the title of this book
merely as a label to suggest the circumstance that called it into
being. But I have written an introductory chapter to give an account of
what is known of him and his times.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The only accurate and reliable account that has ever been given of
the Egyptian funerary practices and their significance is Dr Alan
Gardiner’s introductory memoir on _The Tomb of Amenemhēt_ (illustrated
by Nina de Garis Davies) which was published in 1915 under the auspices
of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society).
Dr Gardiner describes the actual condition of affairs found in a
private Theban tomb of the eighteenth dynasty (in the reign of Thothmes
III, about a century earlier than Tutankhamen); and in the light of his
intimate knowledge and understanding of the literature of the period,
he interprets the meaning of the arrangement of the tomb and especially
of the scenes and inscriptions sculptured and painted upon the walls,
which Mrs de Garis Davies has reproduced with such skill and accuracy.
This unique work is indispensable to anyone who wants to read what the
ancient Egyptians themselves actually wrote to express their beliefs
or interpret their customs. Professor James H. Breasted’s _History
of Egypt_ and _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_
are the best guides to a knowledge of the history and religion of
ancient Egypt. The late Sir Gaston Maspero’s _Egyptian Art_ (London,
1913) contains a great deal of information directly relevant to the
interpretation of objects in Tutankhamen’s tomb. But Mr Burton’s
photographs of Tutankhamen’s funerary equipment give a new interest
and value to Birch’s edition of Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s _The Manners
and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1878), for many of the
objects and funeral scenes depicted in that remarkable book enable us
to form a mental picture of the Valley of the Tombs as the funeral of
Tutankhamen wound its way to the place where Mr Howard Carter has just
brought to light so many articles closely analogous to those depicted
in Birch’s and Wilkinson’s book.
• • • • •
All the information at present available concerning the life of
Tutankhamen and Horemheb, his successor once removed, was collected
and published (in 1912) by the late Sir Gaston Maspero, _The Tombs of
Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou_ (_Theodore M. Davis’ Excavations_).
The other volumes of reports published by Mr Theodore Davis are
valuable for reference and comparison in studying the results of the
exploration of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The two volumes, _The Tomb of Iouiya
and Touiyou_ (1907) and _The Tomb of Queen Tiyi_ (1910) are specially
important, and relevant to the discoveries in Tutankhamen’s tomb. Mr
Arthur Weigall’s book _The Life and Times of Akhnaton_ gives a popular
and romantic picture of his conception of the history of the times of
Tutankhamen and his father-in-law.
TUTANKHAMEN
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Never before in the history of archæological inquiry has any event
excited such immediate and world-wide interest as Mr Howard Carter’s
discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in November 1922. Very little is known
as yet of the king himself, but twelve months hence no doubt his
mummy will give up its secrets and perhaps the story of his life will
be revealed. But at the moment he is supposed to have been merely a
colourless youth, who reigned for a few years only, and achieved such
notoriety as is associated with his name by virtue of weakness rather
than strength of character. For his religious and political opinions
seem to have been as plastic as those of the famous Vicar of Bray,
adapting themselves with facility to his changing environment. The
objects so far found in his tomb do not add very materially to our
knowledge of history.
Yet, in spite of the unimportance of Tutankhamen himself and the
comparative lack of new historical data, the world-wide interest the
discovery has evoked is amply warranted by the new appreciation of
historical values it affords.
It gives us a new revelation of the wealth and luxury of Egyptian
civilization during its most magnificent period. The value of the
gold and precious objects far surpasses that of any hoard previously
recovered from ancient times. Judged merely by its quantity the
collection of furniture is the most wonderful ever found; and everyone
who has examined the individual pieces agrees that in beauty of design
and perfection of craftsmanship Tutankhamen’s funerary equipment is
indeed a new revelation of the ancient Egyptians’ artistic feeling and
technical skill, far surpassing anything known before.
The fact that the tomb of so insignificant a personage as Tutankhamen
was equipped with such lavish magnificence adds to the importance of
the discovery. For if a youthful nonentity who reigned no more than
six or seven years in one of the leanest phases of Egypt’s history
had all this wealth poured into his tomb, one’s imagination tries in
vain to picture the funerary equipment of the famous and longer-lived
pharaohs, such as Thothmes III, who established the Egyptian Empire
in Asia and could command the tribute of the then civilized world, or
Amenhotep III, under whom the sovereign power in Egypt attained its
culmination, and luxury and ostentation their fullest expression. Or
again what riches must have been poured into the vast tombs of Seti
I and Rameses II, the powerful pharaohs who recovered for a time the
Egyptian dominion in Asia which Akhenaton and his sons-in-law had lost?
A thousand years before Christ the desolate Valley of the Tombs of the
Kings must have had buried in its recesses the vastest collection of
gold and precious furniture that perhaps was ever collected in one spot
in the history of the world. For these reasons alone there is ample
justification for the world-wide interest in the discovery which will
always be associated with the names of Lord Carnarvon and Mr Howard
Carter.
But apart from its interest as an artistic revelation and the intrinsic
value of the objects found the discovery is important for other
reasons. The dazzling display of skill and luxury has forced the
scholar and the man in the street to recognize in some measure the
vastness of the achievements of ancient Egyptian civilization and to
ask themselves whether this vigorous and highly developed culture could
have failed to exert a much more profound influence upon its neighbours
than is generally admitted. When it is recalled that Egypt herself
devised the ships and developed the seamanship which created the chief
bond of union with Syria and Crete, East Africa and Arabia, the Persian
Gulf and beyond, we should be in a better position to realize the plain
meaning of the evidence that points to Egypt as the dominating factor
in shaping the nascent civilization of the world. The wide interest in
the revelation of Egypt’s achievements more than thirty centuries ago
should prepare men’s minds impartially to study the vast significance
of the facts thus displayed by Mr Howard Carter’s investigations.
Besides revealing the wonderful equipment of a royal tomb the discovery
of Tutankhamen’s tomb enables us to examine many objects and articles
of funerary equipment hitherto known to us only in pictures. This
makes it possible for us not only to study and appreciate the nature
of the things themselves, but also to acquire new confidence in the
accuracy and the reality of the scenes and the objects depicted upon
the walls of the tombs and the pictures inscribed on papyri. Many of
the illustrations that have long been familiar to us in the old books
of Belzoni, Lepsius, Rosellini, and Wilkinson, have acquired a new
meaning and a new reality from the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb.
Moreover, when the examination of the tomb is completed, and we learn
something of the mummy, the king’s distinctive features, his age, and
his ailments, we shall be able to read the history of his time more
clearly, and perhaps be able to appreciate the deeper significance of
one of the most piquant phases in the history of civilization.
At the time of Tutankhamen the great peoples that had built up
civilization were losing their dominant position. Egypt’s power was
showing definite signs of weakness, which were intensified rather than
caused solely by the pacifist policy of Akhenaton and his sons-in-law.
For even the vigorous rule of the powerful pharaohs of the nineteenth
dynasty merely revived Egyptian power for a time before its final
collapse. Fifty years before Tutankhamen, the Palace of Knossos had
been destroyed in Crete, marking the downfall of the great pioneer
of Mediterranean civilization to which Greece and Europe as a whole
became heir. Babylonia also had reached the limits of her influence:
and the weakening of these three earliest great powers allowed the
Hittites and the Assyrians to struggle the one with the other for
supremacy, crushing out such states as that of the Mitanni, and by
exhausting themselves, so prepared the way for the eventual incursion
of Persia into the Mediterranean area.
Another reason why the sudden weakening of Egyptian influence in Asia
under Akhenaton and Tutankhamen is so important an event in the history
of civilization is because it occurred at a time when the literature of
the Jews was becoming crystallized in the shape that was destined to
exert so tremendous an influence upon the history of belief and social
practice. If Egyptian rule had not been weakened at this particular
time and Palestine had not been subjected to the disturbing influences
of Syrian, Hittite, and Assyrian interference, the Old Testament would
not have been composed in the atmosphere of strife that gives it its
distinctive tone and seems to us to-day unduly to exalt the importance
of warfare and the value of military courage.
But if the weakness of Akhenaton and Tutankhamen contributed in some
measure to the facilitation of strife in Palestine and its reaction
upon the sacred literature of the world, the times in which these
events occurred were pregnant with new trends in the development
of civilization for which these weak kinglets could not be held
responsible. Aryan-speaking people had recently made their appearance
on the stage of history for the first time, in Asia Minor and around
the head waters of the Euphrates in Syria, and in the approaching
disruption of the powers of Western Asia, the influence of these people
of Indo-European speech was destined to make itself obtrusive in Persia
and India and exert a growing influence upon religious beliefs and
social practices.
But simultaneously with these events of far-reaching significance in
Asia, the people of Europe also first intruded upon the attention
of Egypt, and revealed the fact that a new orientation of political
influence was in preparation.
Between Asia and Europe the disturbances in the Levant played some
part in launching upon their world-wide career of exploitation the
persistent trading people we know as Phœnicians, who were responsible
for the rapid diffusion of the elements of civilization during
several centuries from Tutankhamen’s time onward. At the moment it is
the fashion to scoff at the Phœnicians and their works: but no one who
seriously studies the evidence relating to their achievements is likely
to be deceived by this pose. For there is no doubt these people did
fulfil the rôle attributed to them in the Book of Ezekiel.
[Illustration: Map of the Ancient East.]
The period which is so brilliantly illuminated by the discovery of
Tutankhamen’s tomb is thus perhaps the most critical period in the
whole history of civilization. A new era was dawning and every scrap of
information that sheds any light upon the circumstances of this fateful
time is of tremendous interest to us in understanding the civilization
under which we ourselves are living.