In 1922, a British archaeologist named Howard Carter found a ancient tomb in Egypt. A tomb is another name for a grave.

In ancient Egypt, many tombs were built like houses, with dried clay brick and stone. Anybody could build a tomb for themselves and their family. 

Long before they died, the ancient Egyptians began making items to place inside their tomb. These items were called grave goods. 

People loved making grave goods. It was a family activity. They made grave goods their whole life. They made dolls and baskets and jewelry and little statues of workers and all kinds of things. 

Then, as a family outing, they would visit their tomb, and place the grave goods they had made locked safely inside. 

The next time they visited their tomb, they would bring more grave goods. By the time they died, their tomb was full of wonderful memories of their life in Egypt, along with miniature sized things they might need in the afterlife. That was the ancient Egyptian way.  

Pharaohs, of course, were special. They also had tombs, really big ones. They also had grave goods, really beautiful ones, made of gold and silver by the finest craftsmen in the land. As well, people from all over Egypt brought gifts to include in the pharaoh's tomb. Artists painted the walls. Pharaohs tombs were splendid things. 

By the time a pharaoh died, his (or her) tomb had been under construction for decades, and it was loaded with treasure. Every time a new pharaoh came to power, work started immediately on building their tomb.   

As modern archaeologists opened the tombs of the ancient pharaohs, they found that many of them had been robbed and their treasures removed. In ancient Egypt, the worse crime of all was grave robbing. Grave robbers faced horrible deaths if they were caught. Still, the thought of all that treasure overrode their fear of being caught. Tombs were plundered for centuries. 

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One day, in 1922, during the Roaring Twenties, an archaeologist named Howard Carter was working in Egypt. He found a really small tomb. He didn't think much about it because it was so small. He figured it was the tomb of a commoner. You can imagine his excitement when he opened the door and realized he had found the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, a tomb so small that it had been overlooked for thousands of years! 

From the hieroglyphic writing on the walls, Howard Carter knew who was buried in the tomb. It was a young pharaoh named King Tunkhannock, King Tut for short. Today, we know what King Tut looked like because Howard Carter found a solid gold mask inside the tomb, designed like the pharaoh's face.  

King Tut was only nine years old when he became Pharaoh. He was only 18 years old when he died.  King Tut's tomb was very small compared to the tombs of other pharaohs because the people did not have a lot of time to build it. 

Some archaeologists think grave robbers might have broken in  because a bag of gold rings was found on the floor, as if dropped in haste. Others think that perhaps the bag simply fell, perhaps when the ancient Egyptians sealed the tomb. If robbers did find their way inside, they certainly did not take everything. Howard Carter and his team found many treasures inside the tomb. It was almost like entering a time machine.

The artifacts in Tut's tomb told archaeologists and scientists a great deal about ancient Egyptian daily life. 

The discovery of a tomb full of treasure stirred the imagination of people all over the world. Many people became interested in learning more about ancient Egypt and other ancient civilizations because of Howard Carter's incredible discovery - King Tut's Tomb. 

Ancient Egypt - Tut Tut

Tutankhamen - Beneath the Mask

Treasures of Tutankhamen 

Who Killed King Tut? Cast your Vote! (interactive)

King Tut

Howard Carter and the Curse of the Mummy 

Grave Goods

Grave Robbers