-Tells the story of the tomb of Tutankhamun, placing the discoveries in
their historical context and includes many historical documents that are
being published here for the first time -Includes painstaking
recreations, in color, of a number of key contemporary photographs taken
at the time by Harry Burton -Published to accompany an exhibition at The
Ashmoleam Museum, Oxford, UK from July 24th to October 26th 2014 Howard
Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 was one of the
most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The
name of Egypt's 'boy king' is now synonymous with the glories of this
ancient civilization, and the spectacular contents of his tomb continue
to capture the public's imagination. This book tells the story of the
search for Tutankhamun's tomb and its discovery using Howard Carter's
original excavation records that were deposited in the archives of the
Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. The meticulous recording
process and conservation work on the thousands of objects took Carter
and his team an astonishing 10 years and for its time the entire
enterprise was a model of archaeological investigation. Against this
backdrop of painstaking scholarship, the book also explores the
phenomenon of 'Tut-mania', when the world was gripped by all things
Tutankhamun, from jewelry and clothing to dance music and curses. In the
final section, the authors re-evaluate what the tomb's contents can tell
us about the king and his time, and explore various projects that have
in recent years sought to ensure the preservation of Tutankhamun's tomb
and its contents for future generations. For all of these projects, the
Howard Carter archive in the Griffith Institute remains an invaluable
resource.
