Photographing Tutankhamun: Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and the Archive

394 Pages·2018·25.33 MB·English

by  Christina Riggs

PHOTOGRAPHING
TUTANKHAMUN
To my mother, Shirley Ellen Riggs, who took me to the library
and let me read the big books, and in memory of my father,
John Milton Riggs, Sr., whom we all still miss. Dad was the
family photographer, film maker, and slide show maestro. The
man behind the camera, and thus an absence in many images
– but a presence in our archive nonetheless.
PHOTOGRAPHY, HISTORY: HISTORY, PHOTOGRAPHY
Series Editors: Elizabeth Edwards, Jennifer Tucker, Patricia Hayes
ISSN: 2398–3892

This field-defining series explores the inseparable relationship between
photography and history. Bringing together perspectives from a broad
disciplinary base, it investigates what wider histories of, for example,
wars, social movements, regionality, or nationhood look like when
photography and its social and cultural force are brought into the centre
of analysis.

Photography, Humanitarianism, Empire, Jane Lydon Victorian
Photography, Literature, and the Invention of Modern Memory: Already
the Past, Jennifer Green-Lewis Public Images, Ryan Linkof
Photographing Tutankhamun, Christina Riggs Photography and the
Making of Eastern Europe: Conflicting Identities, Culture Heritage (1859–
1945), Ewa Manikowska Photography and the Cultural History of the
Postwar European City, Tom Allbeson Photography and Bearing Witness
in the Balkan Conflict, 1988–2015, Paul Lowe German Vernacular
Photographic Heritage of the Great War, Mike Robinson Camera Time,
Lucie Ryzova

CONTENTS
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
1 Photographing Tutankhamun: an introduction
2 Mirrored memories: excavating the photographic archive
3 ‘The first and most pressing need’: photographic practice at
the tomb of Tutankhamun
4 Tutankhamun’s treasures: objects, artworks, bodies
5 Men at work: the resurrection of the boy-king
6 Worlds exclusive: mediating Tutankhamun
7 The looking-glass: Egyptology’s archival afterlives
List of sources
Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CoverThe mummy mask of Tutankhamun. Photograph by Harry Burton,
late December 1925; GI neg. P0753. Copyright the Griffith
Institute, University of Oxford.
1.1 Howard Carter crouched before the open shrine doors in the burial
chamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Photograph by Harry Burton, 3
January 1924; GI neg. P0626. Copyright the Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford.
1.2 The antechamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb, looking towards the
blocked, seal-stamped entrance to the burial chamber.
Photograph by Harry Burton, 23 December 1923; GI neg. P0007.
Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
1.3 Limestone flake with a drawing of a cockerel. Photograph probably
by Howard Carter, 1920 or 1921; GI neg. Pkv49 (XLIX), glass 8 ×
10.5 cm. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
1.4 Twisted scarf with rings wrapped inside it (object 44b). Photograph
by Harry Burton, early 1923; GI neg. P0220, glass 12 × 16 cm.
Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
1.5 Rings found inside the twisted scarf seen in Figure 1.4 (objects
44c–h, 44j). Photograph by Harry Burton, early 1923; GI neg.
P0222, glass 12 × 16 cm. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University
of Oxford.
1.6 Group photograph ahead of the unwrapping of Tutankhamun’s
mummy. Photograph by Harry Burton, 11 November 1925; GI neg.
P1559, 12 × 16 cm film copy negative, of a print of unknown date.
Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
1.7 The second shrine from the Burial Chamber (object 237), re-
erected in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, Cairo. Photograph by
Harry Burton, November or December 1932; GI neg. P0632A.
Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
1.8 Corner of the quartzite sarcophagus in the tomb of Tutankhamun
(object 240). Photograph by Harry Burton, January 1933; GI neg.
P0646H. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
2.1 Tutankhamun Albums, page 702, mounted with the print Burton
sent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1933 as a replacement
for lost negative TAA 412. Courtesy of the Department of Egyptian
Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2.2 A page from one of the photograph albums Burton made for
Howard Carter, around 1924: Carter Album 4, page 39, in a
section headed ‘Vases – alabaster’. Copyright the Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford (TAA i.6.04.39).
2.3 First page of Penelope Fox’s guide to the Tutankhamun
photographic archive, comparing prints and negatives in the
Griffith Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; dated 6
February 1952. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford
(GI/Green, page 37).
3.1 Seal impressions covering the first doorway of the tomb.
Photograph by Howard Carter, 25 November 1922; GI neg.
P0274, glass 8 × 10.5 cm. Copyright the Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford.
3.2 The seal impressions from the first doorway of the tomb, now
catalogued as object 4. Photograph by Harry Burton, on or around
18 December 1922; GI neg. P0277, glass 12 × 16 cm. Copyright
the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
3.3 First page of the working register of objects for the tomb, showing
numbers 1 to 22. Carter archive, Notebook 13. Copyright the
Griffith Institute, University of Oxford (TAA i.2.13.01).
3.4 Print from GI neg. P0278 marked-up in Carter’s hand, from the
card catalogue record for object 4 – the sealings from the first
blocked doorway of the tomb. Copyright the Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford (TAA i.004.p0278).
3.5 Dismantled chariots and other objects in the Antechamber, with
number cards in place. Photograph by Harry Burton, January
1923; GI neg. P0035. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of
Oxford.
3.6 Perfume vase (object 210). Photograph by Harry Burton,
December 1923 or January 1924; MMA neg. TAA 1054. Copyright
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
3.7 Perfume vase (object 210) photographed again in early 1925,
using a new, curved backdrop. Photograph by Harry Burton,
February or March 1925; GI neg. P0524. Copyright the Griffith
Institute, University of Oxford.
3.8 Gilded wooden statuette of the goddess Sekhmet (object 300a).
Photograph by Harry Burton, March 1927; GI neg. P1040.
Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
4.1 Three shabti kiosks from the Treasury (objects 318, 322 and 325).
Photograph by Harry Burton, October or November 1927; GI neg.
P1046. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
4.2 Shabti-figures from kiosk 319. Photograph by Harry Burton,
October or November 1927; GI neg. P1042. Copyright the Griffith
Institute, University of Oxford.
4.3 Catalogue card for shabti-figures from kiosk 319, using prints from
two separate negatives (GI negs. 1042 and 1045) and with notes
in Howard Carter’s hand. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University
of Oxford (TAA i.1.319ag).
4.4 Shabti-figure 318a photographed on frosted glass. Photograph by
Harry Burton, October or November 1927; GI neg. P1056.
Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
4.5 Shabti-figure 318a photographed upright in front of the curved
backdrop. Photograph by Harry Burton, October or November
1927; GI neg. P1057. Copyright the Griffith Institute, University of
Oxford.
4.6 The axles from two chariots, objects 120a and 122a. Photograph
by Harry Burton, December 1923; GI neg. P0530. Copyright the
Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
4.7 The body of object 120, a gilded wooden chariot. Photograph by
Harry Burton, December 1923; GI neg. P0520. Copyright the
Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.