Description of the records presented in 'The Search for Tutankhamun'

The documentation in the Archive of the Griffith Institute consists of three types of records:

1. Two notebooks.
Carter's Notebook D (Griffith Institute's Archive I.J.386), of 29 numbered pages, measures 32 by 20 cm. It has the title 'Journal of Lord Carnarvon's Excavations in the Valleys of the Tombs of the Kings. Giving the order and position of objects found', signed H. C., on the first unnumbered page. The entries are written partly in pencil, partly in ink, and conclude with find 350 at the end of the 4th season 1920-1. This probably was the original version of the excavation records written down in the Valley of the Kings. The records are mostly lists of finds.
Carter's Notebook E (Griffith Institute's Archive I.J.387), of 28 numbered pages, measures 36 by 27 cm. The records of the first four excavation seasons are written in ink and represent a neat copy of Notebook D, with hardly any differences. The few things which Carter did not copy from Notebook D to E probably were not considered as important. The records of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th are in pencil and may be the original excavation records (thus taking over from Notebook D).

2. The photographs.
Carter's photographs (although, strictly speaking, we do not know whether he took them himself) illustrate the progress of the excavation but, except for one picture, they do not show any finds. They measure, on average, about 13.2 by 8.9 cm. Some, but not all, were numbered and dated by Carter himself.

3. The maps.
Three maps show the excavation areas, divided into squares, with indications of find-spots of objects listed in the Notebooks. There is also a plan of KV 22, the tomb of Amenophis III, which shows the location of foundation deposits.

Gregor Neunert and Jaromir Malek

Back to the opening page