At the end of 1922, a few months after Egypt formally declared its independence, the field of archaeology reached a historic milestone with the discovery of the largely intact tomb of Tutankhamun. The discovery of the royal burial chamber, still considered one of the most culturally significant in history, gave way to eight years of excavation, clearance and documentation down to the last object in the tomb. A process that propelled the leader of the mission, the famous British archaeologist Howard Carter, to international fame.
Yet a century after the discovery, Egypt’s contribution to Carter’s archaeological mission and the process of unearthing, cleaning and preserving the collection that lay in the tomb of Ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh remains a largely neglected chapter of the feat. In the collective imagination, fame and recognition went almost exclusively to Carter.
