The Murder of King Tut

Chapter 48

Thebes

1912

THE BOOK THAT DOCUMENTED everything, every large and small success by Carter, was known as Five Years’ Exploration at Thebes: A Record of Work Done, 1907-1911. Despite the lack of a valley concession, the partnership between Carter and Carnarvon had certainly been prolific.

Carter had refined his excavation techniques, bringing greater precision and professionalism to the task. He used photography as a means of documenting discoveries and continued to sketch elaborate drawings. With local work crews sometimes numbering close to three hundred, he and Carnarvon discovered tombs of nobles and other high-ranking functionaries.

But as well received as Five Years’ Exploration proved to be, raising eyebrows in London and Cairo for the depth of the Carter/Carnarvon discoveries, the American Theodore Davis continued to overshadow them, and that galled Howard Carter.

Now a story about Davis making the rounds suggested that Davis had found not just a new tomb in the valley but the last tomb.

Theodore Davis believed he had found the elusive Tut.