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After years of funded searching with little to show for it, archaeologist Howard Carter finally found what he was looking for in November 1922 — a nearly intact royal tomb that became the most famous archaeological discovery of the 20th century.
A tomb that had somehow survived intact
Almost every other pharaoh’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings had been looted in antiquity, but Tutankhamun’s smaller, less prominent tomb had escaped serious disturbance, preserving an extraordinary collection of burial goods.
“Wonderful things”
When Carter’s patron Lord Carnarvon asked if he could see anything through the small opening into the tomb’s antechamber, Carter’s famous reply — “yes, wonderful things” — undersold what turned out to be one of the richest archaeological finds in history.
A minor pharaoh who became history’s most famous one
Tutankhamun himself was a relatively minor, short-reigned pharaoh who died young and was largely absent from Egyptian records before Carter’s discovery — the sheer preservation of his tomb, not his historical importance, is what made him famous.
The tomb’s contents, including the iconic golden death mask, remain some of the most recognizable artifacts from the ancient world a century after their discovery.
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