The accuracy of Mr. Howard Carter in selecting his second site is rather amazing. Digging was not started there haphazard. The ground had been thoroughly gone over and studied, and the possibilities summed up before the pick was driven into the sand. It was a happy combination of expert knowledge and good luck.
THIS PHOTOGRAPH INDICATES THE UTTER DESOLATION OF THE ARID VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS, WHERE EVEN A BLADE OF GRASS CANNOT LIVE. THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN, GUARDED BY SOLDIERS, IS SHOWN IN THE FOREGROUND
It at once became obvious why the tomb had remained for so long undiscovered, for just above it the last resting-place of Thothmes III was cut into the rock, and all the debris from this later tomb had been shot by the builders on top of the earlier tomb. This rubbish had completely covered in the site of the tomb of Tutankhamen and buried it for centuries.
Few men would think of looking immediately under one tomb for the site of another. Such a place is so unexpected that Mr. Howard Carter deserved every credit for selecting so unlikely a spot in which to carry on his search.
Every man digging in Egypt has learned something from Professor Flinders Petrie. He has a keen, analytical brain, and for years before going to the Nile valley he brought his acute mind to the study of the prehistoric remains to be found in Great Britain. Many a day he might have been seen within the magic circle of Stonehenge, pondering on the origin of the most massive ancient monument in England. His work on the prehistoric remains in Great Britain was but a preliminary to his greater work in the land of the Pharaohs.
With the coming of Flinders Petrie, all the old, haphazard methods went by the board. What he sought was evidence, something that would throw light on the past, that would help to fix dates. The actual intrinsic value of an object was of no concern to him. A bead, in his eyes, found in a certain place, would be of greater value than a nugget of gold. The bead might prove that glass was made centuries earlier than men thought, whereas the golden nugget might prove nothing at all.
Many things slipped through the fingers of the earlier seekers. Nothing slipped through his. He directed the attention of all to the value of every trifling thing that could claim to have been fashioned by the hand of man. He introduced scientific methods. He noted where everything was found; how it was found; the depth at which it was found; what was found with it.
He was not out for an easy life. He lived hard, pitched his tent on the edge of the eternal desert, and at dusk washed the dust out of his eyes and nostrils, took his meal by his camp fire, and wrote up the notes of his day’s work. He snatched what sleep he could, and was up early to get to work before the heat of the day became insufferable. He wasted no time going to and from the site. He slept near by, with the scene of his labours only a few yards from his tent pegs.
