Cold Open

It’s late October 1922 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

On the surface, this ancient burial site is a desert wasteland – a harsh, lifeless landscape. But looks can be deceiving. Underneath the earth, this Valley contains untold treasures.

Sweaty and thirsty diggers hack their way through limestone and marl. Wheelbarrows of dirt are dumped to one side. Most employed here are local Egyptians but there are some foreigners too, and all are searching for signs of the long-lost tombs of the ancient Pharaohs.

This site – nestled amidst the Thebes Hills – is filled with the buried royals of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth dynasties of Ancient Egypt – which reigned from 1550 BCE to 1077 BCE.

Regular excavations have been undertaken in the Valley since the 1820s. But with valuable discoveries becoming increasingly rare, today in the 1920s, many believe the site has no more treasures to reveal.

So the English financier of this dig – George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon – has declared that this will be his final venture. He will not be funding any further projects. And given this, Howard Carter – the British archaeologist in charge of the excavation – is under significant pressure. He is desperate for a discovery, but each day, as the season approaches its end, his hopes are dwindling.

Archeologist Howard Carter's dig will continue on for days and weeks without any significant discovery. He will be driven to the brink of despair fearing for his career and reputation until a lowly waterboy will come to his rescue, uncovering the best preserved tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings, on November 4th, 1922. 

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. 

Today is November 4th, 1922: The Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb. 

Act One: Discovery

It’s November 4th, 1922 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

A twelve-year-old water boy, Hussein Abdul-Rasoul, leads a donkey into camp, with jugs of water strapped to the saddle. Hussein wears a dusty turban and a once-white jalabiya – a long cotton shirt – now flecked with dirt and sand from his journey.

Hussein unloads the jugs for the thirsty workmen and plants them firmly in the ground. But as he does so, his hand brushes over a smooth stone just beneath the surface. Quickly scooping and brushing the sand away, he uncovers what appears to be a step.

British Archeologist Howard Carter darts over to see the water boy’s discovery: the top of a staircase—a staircase to a lost tomb.

The diggers clear sand off the steps, and Carter and his team descend – carefully and tentatively, their hearts racing. They stop at a sealed entrance. The tomb’s door displays a cartouche – a nameplate. It clearly states the identity of the Pharaoh interred inside, Tutankhamun. 

***

It is sometimes said that every person dies twice: when they cease to breathe, and when the last person who remembers them dies.

In 1922, Hussein Abdul-Rasoul and his boss, Howard Carter, resurrect a Pharaoh whose name and memory have been forgotten for 3000 years. But despite their feverish excitement, they cannot enter the tomb – not yet. Carter insists on waiting for the arrival of his employer, George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon.

Finally, after two long weeks of waiting, the Earl arrives in Egypt. 

Clutching flickering lanterns, Carter, Lord Carnarvon and the Earl’s daughter, Evelyn, descend the steep limestone stairs to the dark tomb below.

The air is muggy. As Carter begins to chisel a hole in the door, sweat drips off the end of Carter’s nose. Lord Carnarvon dabs his dripping brow. Evelyn chews on her lip and grips her father's arm.

Finally, Carter breaks through. ​​The hole is big enough that he can pass through a lamp, and poke his head through to the other side. 

Carnarvon asks “Can you see anything?”. 

And Carter replies “Yes, wonderful things.”

It truly is an incredible sight. The light from Carter’s lantern casts long shadows and reflects against ornate objects. There are golden beds and couches, statues, vases, baskets for food, intricately designed boxes, shrines, chairs, an alabaster cup, and much more.

Carter orders the excavation to begin immediately. It will take him years to clear the site. Some 5000 objects will be meticulously documented and removed from the tomb. Pharaohs’ tombs have been uncovered before, but nothing on this scale. It’s the kind of hoard every archaeologist dreams of discovering.

But then, news reaches Carter of an unexpected death – one that threatens the progress of his project.

***  

On April 5th, 1923, less than six months after the discovery of the tomb, Lord Carnarvon lies in a bed at the Continental-Savoy Hotel in Cairo. He suffers from a mosquito bite that gave him blood poisoning, and now, he has pneumonia. He is weak, feverish and pale. And there is nothing to be done. Lord Carnarvon succumbs to the illness and dies just months after entering the Tomb of Tutankhamun.

To Carter’s relief, the rights to the dig are retained by Lord Carnarvon’s wife, Almina Herbert, which allows the excavation to continue without disruption. Still, Lord Carnarvon’s death is sensationalised in the tabloids, with speculation rife that he died because of “The Curse of Tutankhamun!”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories and outspoken Spiritualist, believes in the curse, stating, “It is neither decent nor safe to take from their resting places the bodies of old kings. The Egyptians knew much more about the occult than we do today. This must have been a peculiar element of an Egyptian curse.”

Three years pass. But despite all the jewels and trinkets unearthed, Carter and his team still have not laid eyes on the pharaoh himself…

The tomb is a layered construction. Everything that has been retrieved so far has come from the outermost sanctum. By October 1925, this antechamber has been cleared. But more walls stand between the archaeologists and the inner burial chamber itself. Their doors are held shut by ebony bolts and silver-coated copper staples. It's long, painstaking work to dismantle the shrine walls, which are coated in gold leaf. But finally, they reach the treasure within.

Behind all the many layers of gilded wall, at the heart of this opulent burial chamber, is a stone sarcophagus, perfectly intact. Carter’s eyes light up. 

When the heavy stone lid of the sarcophagus is finally removed, Carter leans in for a closer look.

Crammed inside the stone box is a large, wooden coffin. It too is covered in gold and bears the image of the King himself. After wrenching open the lid, they discover yet another coffin, also made of wood. And inside this, like a Russian nesting doll, is a third and final coffin. This one, however, is made of solid gold, inlaid with jewels, and modelled in the shape of the human body inside.

With a groan of effort, the diggers pry open this final casket. And here they find the mummy: Tutankhamun’s body, wrapped in linen and adorned with precious stones and metals, including an iconic Death Mask.

In the decades following Carter’s discovery, historians and archaeologists will attempt to piece together the life of this boy king. They will try to understand why he is almost entirely absent from the historical records, and gradually, a clearer picture will start to emerge.

Act Two: Life 

Tutankhamun's rule in Ancient Egypt begins in 1333 BCE and ends in 1323 BCE, three- thousand-two-hundred-and-forty-five years before his tomb is discovered. Historical records this far back are sparse. But from the fragments that do exist, one can put together an image of his life and reign.  

His ascension to the divine kingship, at just 8 or 9 years old, comes at a time of social and political turmoil in Egypt. He begins his sovereignty in the long shadow of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled for 17 years – exercising an iron grip over his people.

It’s not certain, but it may well be that Akhenaten was Tutankhamun’s father.

Throughout the 18th Dynasty – as this period of history is known – the religious capital of Egypt is Thebes, a thriving city on the Nile river. The political centre is Memphis, 20km, or 12 miles, south of Egypt’s modern capital, Cairo.

The spiritual beliefs of the Ancient Egyptian people are polytheistic. The many different gods they worship are somewhat similar to the gods of Ancient Greece, embodying different aspects of the natural world. They are sometimes benevolent, but often capricious. They’re extremely powerful, but not all-powerful.

Under Pharaoh Akhenaten, all of that changes.

On the orders of their leader, the Egyptian people are forced to abandon their polytheistic traditions. Instead, they are told to focus their spiritual attention on one single god: Aten, the Sun Disk.

To enforce this radical and unwelcome change, Egyptian soldiers march through the dusty streets of Thebes. They enter the grand temples of Karnak and Luxor. Priests and worshippers are forced out. The holy places of other deities Osiris, Horus, Ra and Anubis are closed, repurposed or destroyed. Akhenaten, the divine king – the supposed spokesman of Aten – has spoken, and the people must obey. 

And Akhenaten is not finished yet. In an act of destructive megalomania, he abandons the former capital city of Thebes and orders the construction of a new city, named Akhenaten, after himself. Construction of this new metropolis takes place in the middle of the scorching desert…

There, a young boy with dry, cracked lips, labours beneath a blazing sun. His hands are bruised. He struggles to push a cart loaded with rock out of the busy construction site. Overworked and malnourished, the boy collapses. He dies face first in the burning sand.

His body is chucked into an open grave with other dead children – mostly between the ages of ten and fifteen. Akhenaten’s labor force includes boys as young as six. Many are worked to death in the name of Aten.

Despite the inhumane conditions, an entirely new city is eventually constructed. But Akhenaten hardly gets to enjoy it: he dies at the age of forty, after 16 years on the throne, leaving power to his son, Tutankhamun.

After the upheaval and the neglect of the old gods under his predecessor, the new pharaoh puts an end to Akhenaten’s heresy. Not only is the construction site deserted, but there is also an initiative to restore the political centre of Memphis and the religious capital of Thebes. The sun god is abandoned, while the other old gods are restored. These are dramatic changes for a young king to make—but then, as Howard Carter will discover, Tutankhamun is no ordinary king.

Act Three: Death

In 1925, Howard Carter continues his examination of Tutankhamun’s mummified body. He spots an abnormality with the boy-king’s left foot: it's clubbed.

The discovery of over 100 walking sticks and canes in his tomb will give rise to the image of Tutankhamun as a frail boy, but another discovery seems to contradict this idea. His tomb is crammed with weapons and depictions of him in battle.   

Perhaps this pharaoh was not entirely constrained by his physical limitations. And indeed, thousands of years prior to the discovery of his tomb, Tutankhamun’s military prowess was put to the test.

***

During Tutankhamun’s reign, Nubian colonies threaten Egypt’s southern borders. At the same time, Libyan tribes make incursions from the northwest. Whether or not Tutankhamun is a mighty warrior in his time, he certainly needs to project the image of one to keep his enemies at bay.

It's believed Tutankhamun passed away in 1324 BCE, but he likely did not die on the field of battle. Thousands of years later, scientists will use digital imaging and DNA testing to suggest that King Tut, as he’s often called, most likely died of an infection, possibly malaria. With no children to carry on the lineage, the pharaoh’s death marks the end of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt—but its premature nature also means that preparations for Tutankhamun's burial are nowhere near complete. Time is precious: the job must be finished while the body can still be preserved, and his tomb needs to be stocked with items that the pharaoh will require in the afterlife.

There is no other option but to repurpose pieces from another royal family member,  Queen Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten. Contemporary examinations of the Death Mask will reveal that Tutankhamun’s name is actually inscribed over the old queen’s name. 

With the tomb finally prepared, Tutankhamun’s mummified body is placed within. The Death Mask is the final layer covering his visage. The lids are placed on top. The shrines are shut and locked. And so they shall remain for another 3,000 years. 

***

With his fall into obscurity and the loss of his tomb to the ages, Tutankhamun dies two deaths—until Howard Carter unearths and immortalizes him.

Following this discovery, Carter becomes a global celebrity. He embarks on a sold-out speaking tour in the United States, writes up his account of the uncovering of the tomb, and plays host to celebrities and royals. He ushers in ‘Tut-mania’, a cultural obsession with the young pharaoh that continues to this day.

What is known of Tutankhamun’s life will always be limited. But in death, he has achieved a fame far beyond that of any other pharaoh—all thanks to the discovery of his remarkable tomb on November 4th, 1922.

Outro 

Next time on History Daily. November 5th, 1881. British armed forces march on a settlement in New Zealand, evicting 2000 residents and destroying the village.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Mollie Baack.

Sound design by Derek Behrens and Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Joe Viner.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters and William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.