On this day, 99 years ago, the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings was opened by a team led by Howard Carter. The tomb had only been discovered in 1922 after being accidentally buried during other excavation work. Although it is assumed that the burial chamber had been entered at least twice before, Tutankhamun’s tomb had the distinction of being virtually untouched at the time of the excavations. Many other tombs had been robbed in the centuries before, especially of their gold treasures, and in the 19th and 20th centuries of other cultural treasures, including mummies. The robbery of cultural treasures was mainly done by Europeans, therefore many pieces ended up either in museums far away (such as the British Museum) or in private ownership. Due to these circumstances, information about their whereabouts only surfaces either late or never and repatriations rarely took place.
Against this background, the discovery is special as well, as the mummy of Tutankhamun is the only one still present in the Valley of the Kings and many of the treasures from the tomb are also exhibited there or are in museums in Egypt, even if in this case many smaller grave goods were also stolen during the excavations and thus lost.
(lh)