The deconstruction of Tutankhamun's tomb, in color
Every object removed, except one.
Wolfgang Wild
1922-1930
Perhaps surprisingly, the mummy of King Tutankhamun remains exactly where it was discovered by Howard Carter, on Nov. 26, 1922 — in its tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.That does not apply, however, to the thousands of objects that accompanied the boy king on his journey to the afterlife — objects which Carter famously described as "wonderful things" when he first peered into the tomb's dark chambers by candlelight.The painstaking — and sometimes back-breaking — work of recording, cataloging and then removing every object, one-by-one, began in October 1926. The final objects were taken from the tomb, almost eight years after Carter's momentous discovery, on Nov. 10, 1930.The tomb's treasures were packed into wooden crates and transported from the workroom (actually another tomb, of Sethos II) to the banks of the Nile for transportation to Cairo by boat. Even though it was only a short distance from the workroom to the river, each journey by hand-pushed Decauville railway cars took 15 hours.
At every stage, Metropolitan Museum photographer Harry Burton captured the process, developing his pictures in an improvised darkroom in a neighboring tomb. In total, Burton generated almost 2,800 glass plate negatives. The images not only documented the work in minute detail, they also brought Burton international renown.The selection of photographs shown here have been colorized by Dynamichrome for the exhibition The Discovery of King Tut, now showing in New York. With precisely crafted replicas and reconstructions, the exhibit allows visitors to step into exact recreations of three burial chambers just as the discoverers saw them.
We were astonished by the beauty and refinement of the art displayed by the objects surpassing all we could have imagined — the effect was overwhelming. - Howard Carter
His tomb instead of tears was full of souvenirs<br> He must have travelled greatly in his time<br> The gold and silver ware that they found hidden there<br> Was from hotels of ev'ry land and clime. - "Old King Tut" (1923), Lyrics by William Jerome, Music by Harry Von Tilzer
