Howard Carter found Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922 while on an excavation expedition in the Valley of the Kings. He wrote in his diary at the time that the chamber was filled with “a wonderful mixture of exquisite and beautiful objects piled one upon another.” Now a previously unpublished letter has emerged which claims Mr Carter could have stolen some items from the site. The letter was sent to Mr Carter in 1934 by a scholar of his own excavation team, Sir Alan Gardiner. British Egyptologist Howard Carter stands with one leg up on a step at the entrance to an Egyptian archaeological site in 1923 (Getty Images) Mr Carter had shown Sir Alan an “um talisman”, which had been used for offerings to the dead, and apparently assured him it did not come from Tutankhamun’s tomb, the Guardian reported. However, Sir Alan was told by the then British director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo that the amulet matched others found in the tomb and was likely stolen. He enclosed the director’s verdict in a letter to Mr. Carter. It read: “The whm amulet you showed me was undoubtedly stolen from Tutankhamen’s tomb.” British archaeologists Howard Carter (left) carry out the systematic removal of objects from the antechamber of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (Getty Images) Sir Alan wrote to Mr. Carter: “I am deeply sorry to have found myself in such an awkward position. . . Of course I did not tell Engelbach [the director] that I took the amulet from you.” It has long been rumored that Mr. Carter had taken treasures from the dig. The letters will be published in a new book, Tutankhamun and the Tomb That Changed the World, by Oxford University Press.
