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REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS
This slim ‘Spotlight’ volume is the first in a new series of EES publications highlighting the society’s collections and projects, and it is only fitting that the first should focus on the work of Howard Carter. Artist, archaeologist, inspector – Carter is, of course, best known for the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, but this is only briefly touched on, as the focus here is Carter’s early work as an artist and his pioneering techniques for archaeological recording. The book was written to provide historical context for one of the society’s collection highlights: a large watercolour of Thutmose III with his mother Senseneb offering to Anubis – an accurate reproduction of a painted scene in the Shrine of Anubis, from the Chapel of Thutmose I at Deir el-Bahri (the painting is currently on loan to the Egypt Centre, Swansea).
Carl Graves recounts Carter’s early life and his transition from artist to excavator. He was born in 1874, trained by his artist father, and in 1891 (at the age of 17) employed by the Egypt Exploration Fund as a ‘tracer’ (which today we would call an epigrapher) for the Archaeological Survey of Egypt at Beni Hassan and Deir el-Bersha, with Percy Newberry. Carter preferred to live in a tomb rather than a tent, with a bed of palm strips, and a bookcase made from wood planks and biscuit tins. He worked with Flinders Petrie at Amarna, Édouard Naville at Deir el-Bahri, and in the Valley of the Kings with Theodore Davis.
As a tracer, Carter was responsible for recording decorated wall scenes, but while his colleagues preferred to fill in the gaps and paint completed images, Carter presented scenes exactly as he saw them, and his system and methodology are the foundations of archaeological technique today.
Graves explores the more problematic parts of Carter’s career, too: his discovery (with Newberry) of the Hatnub alabaster quarries that was then usurped by other members of his team, leading to Newberry’s resignation; and the ‘Saqqara Affair’ when, trying to prevent damage by an inebriated French group, Carter was reprimanded and later resigned as an inspector. Following the discovery of KV62, Carter would spend the rest of his life cataloguing the finds, although not publishing any scientific reports, and died in relative obscurity at the age of 64.
Graves makes good use of the EES archives, reproducing discussions from the Archaeological Survey’s AGM minutes. Beautifully illustrated with archive photographs and many of Carter’s paintings and line drawings, this is a timely appreciation of Howard Carter’s artistic and epigraphic legacy.
Howard Carter: From Tracer to Tutankhamun
by Carl Graves
EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY, 2024
ISBN 978-0-85698-262-0
PAPERBACK, £9.95
