“Tutankhamun: The Untold Story” by Thomas Hoving

 

384 pages, Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: 978-0671243050

Say, do you miss Borders as much as I do? I’ll bet you do. Between them and Barnes & Noble (2^nd & Charles had yet to make an appearance) I acquired hundreds of books, new and used, for my library – for cheap, too. Like this one, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story by Thomas Hoving, which tells the tale of how the tomb of King Tut was discovered, cataloged, restored and brought to light in 1922. Written in 1978, I got it for a mere $4.55, which all good-hearted people can agree is a bargain, make no mistake. Even though this book is 30+ years old it is still (as far as I know) the definitive account of the events surrounding the rediscovery of this most-famous of Pharaohs.

I found myself exceeding my typical chapter-a-day reading schedule with this one, as the title of the book is true: there are many tales surrounding the discovery and opening of this tomb that were unknown, at least by me (and others, I imagine; everything I have read or watched about King Tut’s tomb failed to mention much of the information I gleamed from this book). For instance, the fact that both Howard Carter and his benefactor Lord Carnarvon illegally entered the tomb before announcing its discovery, or that, contrary to popular belief, while the tomb was mostly intact, it had been broken into and robbed on previous occasions in the past.

But wait! There’s more…Carter and Lord Carnarvon not only practiced “art dealing of a rather cutthroat and questionable variety” – that is, they up and sold ancient artifacts for the cash they needed to support their digs – but also spirited numerous items out of Egypt against Egyptian law (some of which can still be found in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; indeed, Carter’s biggest attempted theft was discovered and then covered up, with help from the Met). Meanwhile, Carter’s unbalanced, combative behavior in dealing with Egyptian/French authorities was largely responsible for the end of friendly conditions for archaeologists in Egypt.

But all this came after such dedication and persistence on the part of the difficult Carter and the patient Carnarvon, for after five years of fruitlessly searching the “played out” Valley of the Kings, just when they were about to give up, their efforts were at last crowned by success; the fact that the tomb was actually the long-lost Tutankhamun’s was just gravy. Add to that the description of the first tour of the interior (whether Carter was cheating by undertaking it) and the account of the gradual peeling away of the layers of the magnificent tomb at the center of which lay the remains of the King…considering all that it is quite possible to forgive most trespasses.

Be warned, however: while the mechanics of discovering, accessing, cataloging, preserving and removing the many treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb are presented, the main thrust of the story involves the politics behind all of that; Carter fighting with the press, with the antiquities department, with other archeologists, with the governments not only of Egypt and Britain but of America and others, and so on (rather too much, if I’m to be honest). All of which distracts from what should be the main thrust of the story: the treasures and their meanings to the Ancient Egyptians. Not that it was without interest…just not THAT much interest.

While many of these stories may be familiar to many of us today, they were not when first collected together into one source by Hoving in this book from 40+ years ago, and for that there is no reason to despise Tutankhamun: The Untold Story.