12/09/2024
KV62, Tutankhamun's eternity abode, consisted of four rooms full of objects, mostly in disorder. At the end of the descending corridor, there is the antenna camera in which, according to Carter's words responding to Lord Carnarvon, "wonderful things" could be seen. Two Nubian warriors, keep access to the mortuary chamber in which four gold-plated wooden chapels, fitted into one another, covered a red quartzite sarcophagus, which, when the lid could be lifted, was observed to contain three mumiform coffins, made of wood plated with sheets of Gold the first two and solid gold the third. Inside rested the mummy of the young Pharaoh, with his head and shoulders covered by his famous gold mask. However, it is worth not to forget that getting to the hidden secrets of KV62 was not easy. Quite the opposite. It was required to dispose of Lord Carnarvon's money, as well as knowledge, professionalism, rigor, tenacity, patience and conviction as you will check through this short story.
On November 4, 1922, the first step of a descending staircase appeared in the middle of the geography of the Valley of the Kings. It could be access to a well, or a foundation deposit, or, perhaps, at the beginning of the staircase leading down to the entrance of a royal tomb. Possessed by intense emotion, they immediately warned Howard Carter that from that very moment he knew that he had found what had cost him many years of struggle, sacrifices and not a few disappointments. Once liberated the 16 descending steps, they found a painted door in which the seal of the necropolis and the name of Pharaoh Nebkheperura Tutankhamon could be read. This discovery, like no other, had protagonists, some of them little-known, that I will not leave in oblivion. I mean Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell, lady Carnarvon, who put the money so that her husband, George Herbert, Lord Carnarvon was financing for 14 years the excavation campaigns in the archaeological concession they had in the Valley of the Kings. I also mean your daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert who, thanks to her perseverance, did not allow the disappointing initial results to dampen the morale of the team. And finally to Howard Carter. This archaeologist badge says it all. Without him, I wouldn't be writing these lines on the tomb of the XVIII Dynasty King.
I finish now, and I will do it in the most appropriate way, in the words of Carter himself:
"On the morning of November 4, when I arrived at the site, an unusual silence made me realize something had just happened." I was immediately informed that underneath the first cottage they had dismantled, a step carved into the rock had just been dug up. It was just too good to be true. However, we actually stood in front of the entrance of a staircase dug in stone about four meters below the tomb of Ramses VI, and at the same depth as the current level of the Valley bed. I couldn't believe we finally found our grave. "
