Career
Lord Carnarvon was a sportsman, turf enthusiast, and collector of rare items. When the British Egyptologist Sir Ernest Budge suggested that he take up the study of Egyptology, he made the acquaintance of the archaeologist Howard Carter, and in 1906 they began excavations in Egypt near Thebes and Der el-Bahari. There they discovered tombs of kings of the XII and XVIII Egyptian dynasties, which Carnarvon described in Five Years' Explorations at Thebes (1912).
World War I put an end to these excavations, but they were resumed shortly thereafter. In November 1922 Carnarvon and Carter discovered, so concealed by fallen debris that it had never been touched by grave robbers, the tomb of Tutankhamen, the Amarna age pharaoh of the 14th century b.c. The sepulcher chamber itself was opened in February 1923, and the sarcophagus was found in January 1924. So spectacular and costly were the items thus brought to light that magazines and newspapers everywhere gave much space to the work.
Through all these years Lord Carnarvon was acquiring a priceless selection of Egyptian antiquities. He died, however, without living to see some of the best results of his most famous discovery. He contracted blood poisoning from an insect bite; pneumonia set in and he died in Cairo on Apr. 5, 1923. Among the writings on his and Carter's discovery are The Tomb of Tut-ankh-amen by Howard Carter (1923) and Tutankhamen, and the Discovery of His Tomb by Grafton Elliott Smith (1923).