Seek and Discover.
In this episode, we begin the tale of the most famous tomb in history. KV62, a small monument, in the lower reaches of the Valley of the Kings. Overlooked for three thousand years, the tomb finally emerged thanks to a persistent excavator and a stroke of good fortune. However, the Tomb of Tutankhamun has built up its own mythology. In this episode, we begin to explore the tomb, and its discovery, including some lesser-known questions…
Episode Chapters
- Chapter 1: A Long-Expected Pharaoh 04:15
- Chapter 2: The Stairway to the Past 27:36
- Chapter 3: The Door Goes West 46:51
- Chapter 4: Candles in the Dark 1:08:40
- Chapter 5: The Antechamber Unmasked 1:22:52
- Conclusion: 1:39:00
Episode Links
- Howard Carter and George Herbert (Lord Carnarvon), Five Years’ Exploration at Thebes: A Record of Work Done 1907-1911 by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1912. Available at Project Gutenberg and Archive.org.
- Christina Riggs, “Waterboys and Wishful Thinking,” https://photographing-tutankhamun.com/2020/06/20/the-water-boy-who-wasnt/
- For the full archive of Harry Burton’s photographs, showing the tomb of Tutankhamun in its original state, see the Griffith Institute website.
- Date: 1922 CE
- Banner image: The Antechamber, north wall, with guardian statues to either side (photo Harry Burton, cropped, edited for clarity, and digitally upscaled with Topaz AI software).
- Music by Keith Zizza.
- Music by Michael Levy.
- Music by Ancient Lyric.
- Sound interludes by Luke Chaos.
- Audio mixing/editing by Vincent Cavanagh.
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Bibliography
- H. Assaad and D. Kolos, The Name of the Dead: Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of the Treasures of Tutankhamun Translated (Missisauga, 1979).
- H. Beinlich and M. Saleh, Corpus der Hieroglyphischen Inschriften aus dem Grab des Tutanchamun (Oxford, 1989).
- E. C. Brock, ‘A Possible Chariot Canopy for Tutankhamun’, in A. Veldmeijer and S. Ikram (eds.), Chasing Chariots: Proceedings of the First International Chariot Conference (Cairo 2012) (Leiden, 2013), 29–44.
- H. Carter, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, II (London, 1927).
- H. Carter, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, III (2000 Reprint edn, London, 1933).
- H. Carter and A. C. Mace, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, I (London, 1923).
- T. M. Davis, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Toutânkhamanou (2001 Reprint edn, London, 1912).
- E. S. Edwards, ‘Some Reflections on the Tutankhamun Exhibition’, The Burlington Magazine 114 (1972), 202–8.
- Z. Hawass, Discovering Tutankhamun: From Howard Carter to DNA (Cairo, 2013).
- Z. Hawass and S. Vannini, Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb (London, 2018).
- T. Hoving, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story (New York, 1978).
- T. G. H. James, Howard Carter: The Path to Tutankhamun (Tauris 2001 edn, New York, 1992).
- N. Kawai et al., ‘The Ceremonial Canopied Chariot of Tutankhamun (JE61990 and JE60705) A Tentative Virtual Reconstruction’, CIPEG 4 (2020), 1–11.
- N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (Cairo, 1990).
- N. Reeves, ‘Tutankhamun’s Mask Reconsidered’, Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar: The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold 19 (2015), 511–26.
- N. Reeves and J. H. Taylor, Howard Carter Before Tutankhamun (London, 1992).
- N. Reeves and R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings (London, 1996).
- The Griffith Institute, ‘Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation’, The Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, <http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/> accessed .
- Theban Mapping Project, ‘KV 62 The Tomb of Tutankhamun’.
- Unknown Author, ‘Work at the Tomb of Tutankhamun’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 33 (1975), 96–108.
- K. R. Weeks, ‘The Component Parts of KV Royal Tombs’, in R. H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (New York, 2014), 98—117.
- H. V. F. Winstone, Howard Carter and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun (London, 1991).
I am enjoying this and the previous episodes greatly! I don’t know how the others feel, but it would be more convenient for me to keep each episode to 30-40 minutes per release and divide the longer releases as needed. This release is one hour and forty-eight minutes, which could be broken into perhaps three separate releases.
Hi Martin, thanks for your comment. Ideally, I would have liked to divide this one as you said. Unfortunately, this part of the story just didn’t “flow” when broken up like that. Rest assured, the next episodes are more manageable. Dominic
Dear Dominic,
Wonderful. One does not get enough of this story, even when knowing it already – especially in your captivating account
Small something – the spelling of the city in Germany to whose university you refer in the descritpion of ill. “Entrance to KV62” is:
Heidelberg, not Heidelburg.
Thank you, I think waiting for the next part is just a tiny bit like Carter’s wait for the lord’s arrival and for opening the tomb : )
All the best to New Zealand’s warm weather as winter is slowly coming here, in Europe,
Ivonna Nowicka
Hi Dominic,
Back to professor Reeves’ theory (once more), was blown away by his short lecture at ARCE last year and the videos he has produced on this issue (
).
I find it convincing… except for his iconographic arguments, that seem counter-intuitive, as we all have learned how little realistic/unambiguous representation in Ancient Egyptian art is.
I was wondering if you could broach this subject (or at least artistic representation at large) in an interview with some heavy hitter of this subdomain. Professor Laboury is the first one to come to my mind, but there are definitely more.
Best regards and wishes from a listener of 10 years,
David
Thank you David, I wasn’t aware of these video uploads (just his published articles). In 2024, the evidence seems to weigh against the “extra chambers” hypothesis. But there may be another team *near* Tutankhamun, which will be investigated by archaeologists before too long 🙂