Following Odysseus Not the end of the world Amarna city of light ...

Interview5 6Discovery of Tutankhamun, andCarnarvon & Carter: The Story oftwo Englishmen who Discoveredthe Tomb of Tutankhamun.One aspect of this famous relationshipshe wants emphasise isthat it was based on partnership,rather than patronage. She is keento correct the common perceptionthat Lord Carnarvon provided themoney and Carter did the work.‘They were a good combinationand they complemented each other,’she explains. ‘Both of them weremavericks in the sense that neither ofthem were formally trained archaeologistsand they shared an absolutepassion for Egypt. What a lotof people don’t realise is that fromaround 1901 the 5th Earl spent fourmonths every year in Egypt. Initially5. Looking down intothe Valley of the Kings.6. ‘The Weighing of theHeart’, detail, fromIrtyru’s coffin (below).7. Carnarvon first metHoward Carter in 1907.8. Canopic chest foundin Tutankhamun’s tomb.9. A published recordof their first workingcollaboration.10. Painted woodencoffin of a womannamed Irtyru (foundin 1909 by Carter andCarnarvon) is now onshow at Highclere.7 8it was for health reasons, but graduallyhis interest in archaeologygrew. There he met Carter, who hadbeen working in Egypt since 1891and employed him to supervise anexcavation in Thebes from 1907 to1911. It was a meeting that wouldchange both their lives.’In the book recording their firstworking collaboration, Carnarvonthanks Carter for his ‘unremittingwatchfulness and care in systematicallyrecording, drawing andphotographing everything as itcame to light’.This was a decade before the nowlegendary finding of the tomb ofTutankhamun. Everyone knows thestory of the monumental discovery,in which the intact tomb, with itsfabulous gold treasures, was opened910