Tutankhamun

Margaret Orr from Lochwinnoch, when she was 11 years old, visited the tomb of Tutankhamun with her parents. Nothing special in that, lots of tourist visit it each year. Except it was 1923 and the tomb had only just been discovered. Her father was Arthur Mace an Egyptologist specialising in the restoration of Egyptian artefacts and he was part of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter’s expedition that discovered the tomb. Although British, Arthur Mace was a leading member of the archaeological team of the New York Metropolitan Museum. In 1922, when Howard Carter and Lord Caernarvon made their world-shaking discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, he was one of the first to be chosen to work on that fantastic find in the Valley Of The Kings, near Luxor. He became Carter’s right-hand man. Arthur and Howard co-authored a book about the expedition entitled The Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb.

When Margaret, now Margaret Orr having married Prof. Robin Orr a Scottish composer and academic, was 78 and living at Newton of Belltrees she “discovered” a suitcase full of her fathers letters, notes and photographs from that famous dig left to her by her mother when she died in 1940. They became the basis for a Tutankhamun exhibition in our wee community library in 1989, eventually moving to Paisley museum. Because of Arthur Mace’s links to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the high esteem with which he was held by the Met, they provided some Egyptian artefacts for the Paisley exhibition. Above is a sketch of Arthur Mace by Ernest Harold-Jones. The exhibition in Paisley was entitled “The Grand Piano Came By Camel”. The Piano had been sent to Winifred Mace by her parents who felt sorry for their musical daughter stuck in the desert threading ancient beads while her husband, Arthur, excavated there.

The BBC got in on the act and produced a 50min documentary entitled “Return to Tutankhamun” which has only been aired once on BBC1 in 1991. I’ve been unable to track a copy down or I would have provided a link to it. This documentary tells the story of Margaret's trip to the dig site including, as the title suggests, taking her back to where it all happened.

All this came to light quite by chance as many exciting and wonderful things sometimes do. In 1989 the local school children wanted to do a project about ancient Egypt. Dr Lee at the library was approached and he knew someone in the village had some sort of connection with Egypt. He contacted Margaret and over a cup of tea she produced the suitcase which her mother had filled with all the material her husband had sent her while he worked on the dig. These items were packed away in 1928 just after the death of her husband. In 1989 Margaret was 78 years old and the last living person who had actually been in the tomb during its excavation. She died in 2000 aged 89.

Margaret recollected that she was not overawed by what she saw, the tomb was not in a pyramid but built into a cliff face in the Valley of the Kings. She and a friend Frances Winlock were given a guided tour by Howard Carter. Francis died at the age of 21 and Margaret’s father died in 1928 at the age of 54. All of this and other unfortunate events lent weight to the supposed curse of Tutankhamun that spread after Carnarvon’s death two weeks after entering the tomb. When asked about this Margaret said:

“The story of the curse was fabricated by certain journalists because rival newspapers were given the exclusive rights to publish eye-witness accounts of the opening of the tomb. They wanted to scare people away. It was not the curse which killed my father - it was all the political wrangling between governments. He had developed tuberculosis during his war service and really should not have been involved in any excavation work, he was only in Egypt as part of a team which was acceptable to all the governments involved in the project. By being there his condition worsened and he died’

On 5^th November 1922 Howard Carter wrote in his pocket diary: 'Discovered tomb under tomb of Ramses VI investigated same & found seals intact.' The subsequent 10 year long excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun captured the public imagination. So much so because it was the only known near intact royal burial from ancient Egypt 3350 years after the young pharaohs death in 1323BC. Tutankhamun ruled for about 10 years dying when he was around 19 years old. In 2010 scientists found traces of malaria parasites in his mummified remains and posited that malaria in combination with degenerative bone disease may have been the cause of death.

Instead of a full-size royal tomb cut into the slopes of the valley, he was interred in a small tomb dug into the valley floor. The tomb was robbed twice soon after its construction. Officials restored and resealed it, filling the entrance passage with chips of limestone to deter further intrusion. During the reigns of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI, nearly two centuries after Tutankhamun's death, his tomb was covered by debris from the construction of their tombs. Tutankhamun's tomb was thus hidden from later waves of robbery so that, unlike other tombs in the valley, it retained most of the artefacts he had been buried with. The tomb contained more than 5000 objects in a very fragile state. The opulence of the burial goods inspired a media frenzy. Interest began to wane but re-awakened in 1925 when the mummy was removed from its coffin.

At the time excavations were funded by museums or private collectors in exchange for a share of the artefacts, usually half, and the remainder went to the Egyptian Antiquities Service and its museum, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Egypt had only recently become semi-independent from British rule and the tomb became a symbol of national pride. This led to a lot of friction between Egyptians and the British led excavation team. In particular a dispute arose between Howard Carter and the Egyptian government over who should control access to the tomb. In early 1924, Carter stopped work in protest, beginning a dispute that lasted until the end of the year. Under the agreement that resolved the dispute, the artefacts from the tomb would not be divided between the government and the dig's sponsors and most of the tomb's contents went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The first exhibition of artefacts outside Egypt took place between 1961 – 1967 in North America. The UK got its turn with the Treasures of Tutankhamun tour which visited various countries from 1972-1981. The British museum was the first venue running from April 1972 till December 1972 and it attracted 1.6 million visitors. The next tour to visit the UK was Tutankhamun and the Golder Age of the Pharaohs which ran from 2004 – 2011 and was staged at the O2 arena from November 2007 till August 2008. I was lucky enough to enjoy a private tour courtesy of some corporate hospitality by National Grid.

The images below comprise the pamphlet advertising the exhibition of the materials sent by Arthur Mace to his wife and inherited by Margaret on her mothers death in 1940. The exhibition was held in Lochwinnoch Community Museum 15th Nov 1989 - 8th February 1990.