This year marks the centenary of perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery in history. At the end of 1922, the world was astonished by the news from Thebes in Egypt. After years of searching, a discovery of the most extraordinary nature was made in the Valley of the Kings.

In this episode, the renowned Egyptologist and scholar Toby Wilkinson takes us back to a story that is still as magnetic and magical as ever.

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On 26 November 1922, Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter made their way down an excavated tunnel in the Valley of the Kings. Having reached something they took to be either a sealed door or a wall, Carnarvon asked Carter to pull out a few stones to see if he could determine what lay behind. He did as he was instructed, and in a few minutes had made a hole big enough for him to push his head through into the darkness. Carter did this. Then he lit a candle so that he could ‘dimly discern what was inside.’

Carnarvon remembered what happened next. There was a long silence, until he said, ‘in somewhat trembling tones, “Well, what is it?”’ The answer came back from Carter. ‘There are some marvellous objects here.’

Carnarvon now followed Carter to the hole. He could, ‘with difficulty’ restrain his excitement. To begin with, due to the gloom, all that he could see were glowing lines which he took to be gold bars. But as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, Carnarvon realised what he was looking at. There were colossal gilt couches, fabulous heads, boxes, and more boxes. Boxes stacked everywhere.

‘We enlarged the hole,’ he went on, ‘and Mr Carter managed to scramble in.’ Then, as Carter held the light of the candle into the various corners of the chamber, the astonishing reality of their find became apparent. ‘We know,’ the lord wrote, ‘that we had found something absolutely unique and unprecedented.’

So began the story of the extraordinary discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb, a story that was destined to echo around the world over the weeks that followed. Newspapers would devote column after column to every detail of the excavation. Photographers would chronicle every step of the removal of the artefacts over the weeks and months ahead.

But, equally, the moment Carnarvon and Carter entered the tomb was as much of an ending to a period of history as it was a beginning. As today’s guest, Toby Wilkinson, explains, it brought to a close an era that is now considered the Golden Age of Egyptology – an era bookended by the decoding of Hieroglyphics in 1822 and the great discovery of a century later.

In this episode Wilkinson takes us back to the events of 1922. We are still learning about that history today. Who, for example, was the first person to discover the tunnel that led down towards the tomb? For many years it has simply been described as Carter’s accomplishment, but is this really the case? What about the young Egyptian, Hussein Abdel Rasoul?

And how close did the enterprise come to failure? In the summer of 1922, after years of conflict and bad luck, it really seemed as if Carter’s time was up. As fate had it, the expedition returned to Thebes for one final season.

Toby Wilkinson is the author of an innovative new book on this history. In Tutankhamum’s Trumpet he follows the stories of the magical objects that were found in the tomb. These were the statues, the beds, the chariots, the masks and pottery and one hundred objects in all. Inside that room, as Carter realised as he lit his candle, was the evidence of a lost culture.

Wilkinson uses these objects to remake that world.

Tutankhamun's Trumpet: the Story of Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects by Toby Wilkinson is available now.

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Show Notes

Scene One: The summer of 1922, Highclere Castle. Howard Carter visits Lord Carnarvon.

Scene Two: 4 November 1922. The Valley of the Kings. The discovery of the first step.

Scene Three: 26 November 1922. The Valley of the Kings. The opening of the tomb.

Momento: The water jug that Hussein Abdel Rasoul set down in the sand of the Valley of the Kings on the morning of 4 November 1922

People/Social

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Toby Wilkinson

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours

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About Toby Wilkinson

Professor Toby Wilkinson is an internationally acclaimed Egyptologist, and the prize-winning author of twelve books which have been translated into twelve languages. His books include The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. The Nile and A World Beneath the Sands. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society, and a member of the international editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History. He is the Vice-Chancellor of the Fiji National University and a Bye-Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.