14 - 20 February 2002
Issue No.573
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 February 2002 Issue No.573 |
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Sharing the spoils
Howard Carter, The Path to Tutankhamun, FGH James, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2001. pp513Archaeology, or digging for the past, was fraught from the start with disputes brought about by the greed of the different powers involved in a relatively new endeavour and marked by the personalities of those who, trained or untrained for the job, had found enough financial and political backing to take on the task. Although Egyptology, unlike Palestinian archaeology, was not expected to prove or disprove a claim regarding the land itself, the artefacts and monuments discovered remained a bone of contention between their natural owners, namely the modern-day Egyptians, and the countries that sponsored the digs.
By the time Howard Carter appeared on the scene, the French and the British were firmly locked in a tug-of-war over who would carry away the largest number of prizes.
More than a biography, TGH James's Howard Carter provides the reader with a glimpse of a strange world where personal ambition as well as patriotic feelings played the main role in keeping discoveries and their value secret from both other archaeologists and the rightful owners of the finds. Even though some seem to have acted in good faith, believing that they were thus preserving the precious past from neglect and ignorance, the length to which foreign Egyptologists went to keep the "natives" away and ship their finds out hint at troubled ethics. Not before Mariette and Maspero did Egypt receive part of the spoils; but then, they were extremely jealous of their privileges and did their utmost to keep other archaeologists away. It is lucky for Carter that he gained the sympathy of Maspero, who took him under his protection during the young man's stint as Chief Inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service set up by Mariette in 1858 (this service was the first of its kind in any country but had never been provided with adequate funds or staff to fulfil its many functions).
Carter was not very well educated, as is obvious from the frequent spelling mistakes that pepper his private correspondence, but he was a meticulous artist and a hard worker. He painted society portraits before launching himself on more adventurous pursuits, and there must have been little love lost between him and his wealthy models. He was definitely more at ease with the local population; an ambitious man, however, he was capable of currying favour with the rich and powerful, observing their manners and emulating them, fully aware that a successful archaeologist in those day had to be an homme du monde as well. He knew that only by befriending important visitors to Egypt could he persuade them to finance various excavations. He therefore trained himself in the art of becoming a social animal, learning, for instance, to master his temper, which he lost only under extreme provocation. During his career in Egypt, he is known to have done so only once, at the time of the Saqqara Affair. Even then, he chose to relinquish his official position and seek a less "demeaning" future rather than cause more inconvenience to those who had taken his side.
Left: The blocked entrance to the burial chamber of Tutankhamun's tomb; right: The 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1923
Throughout the Saqqara Affair, which soon became a diplomatic embarrassment, Maspero maintained his support, understanding that Carter, a newcomer, had not yet been given the opportunity to identify the political forces that ruled Egyptologists' otherwise incomprehensible actions and decisions.
The episode was an eye-opener to his employers, who saw clearly that Carter was a sensitive and conscientious archaeologist but a cantankerous young man not amenable to compromise. Carter, writes James, "was not one given to pouring out his emotions in letters to such friends as he had. His style was essentially laconic; in personal matters he was restrained and terse to the point of seeming to be unmoved. Both in enthusiasms and disappointments he appeared, on paper at least, to be wholly contained." One is left to mull over the reasons for his sour disposition. Was it his ill health, which often interrupted his work, the uncertain international situation that brought about World War I and put a halt to his efforts, or the precarious financial conditions under which he was labouring? Or did his chronic depression, shared by many of those involved in the same line of work, simply come with the territory?
Whatever the case may have been, Carter was destined to make one of the most momentous discoveries that any Egyptologist could ever hope to make. Under the aegis of Lord Carnarvon, he dedicated many years to digging in the Valley of the Kings. On 1 November 1922, work began in front of the tomb of Ramesses VI, writes James. "In his work diary, his first entry after noting the start of the excavation is listed 'item 433'; the numbering resumes his series of excavated finds in the Valley, which had began in February 1915 with the fragments of an alabaster shabti figure of Queen Tiye, found near the entrance to the tomb of King Amenophis III. Item 433 is given as 'Entrance of tomb of'; on the opposite page he adds, 'in bed rock floor of water course (below entrance R VI). Discovered 4th November 1922.' On 6 November Carnarvon received the following cable: At last have made wonderful discovery in the Valley. A magnificent tomb with seals intact. Recovered same for your arrival. Congratulations. Carter'."
Thus began the long saga of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, which brought Carter little glory or wealth when he was alive and many accusations before and after his death of collusion with Lord Carnarvon to empty the tomb of its most precious artefacts before making its discovery public. No matter how his contemporaries judged the importance of his work, Carter is certainly one of the most distinguished archaeologists to have explored the ancient tombs and presented the world with an invaluable treasure. One can only grieve at James's description of his funeral: "A sad small company gathered at Putney Vale cemetery in South London to say 'Farewell' to Howard Carter. It was not the kind of gathering which commonly attends the obsequies of the great and famous, but it yet offered, in a modest scale, a fair representation of the various parts of the life of one who had in his time achieved remarkable public esteem. The 'great Egyptologist,' as the Times obituary appropriately called him, 'who gained fame for his part in one of the most successful and exciting episodes in the annals of archeology, the discovery and exploration of the tomb of Tutankhamen,' had died in relative obscurity, his ultimate purpose unfulfilled, his real achievement uncrowned by official recognition. He had been born to a life of moderate expectation; he ended his life deprived of the pomp and splendour with which he had become familiar in the mortuary ceremonies and paraphernalia of the monarchs of Egypt in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes."
That Howard Carter reads today both like a detective story and a fascinating study on the social environment of archaeological digs in Egypt at the turn of the century is a credit to the author and to the man he has so vividly portrayed.
Reviewed by Fayza Hassan
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