Lecture 1 - Tutankhamun: Discovery

Ancient Egypt, buried in the sands, had largely vanished from view and wasn’t even on the Grand Tour of elite young Europeans in the 18th century. By the early 1900s, Carter’s years of searching in the Tomb of the Kings was swept along in the wake of a gripping tale of exploration and international competitiveness which had really begun with the scientists who accompanied Napoleon’s campaigns to Egypt.

The breath-taking story of the discovery was recorded in Carter’s own words in his diaries and correspondence, in the new media of newspapers across the world, and in the magnificently composed images taken by British photographer Harry Burton. The world held its breath in the weeks, months and even years that followed as the unimaginably stunning finds were gradually revealed. It would be three years before the sarcophagus would be opened to reveal the now world-famous mask of the young king. Even now, 100 years later, new scientific methods continue to cast fresh light on Tutankhamun’s life and death.