Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1923-04-12
80 YEARS TO FIND TUT'S TOMB
Toll and Patience Are the Price of
Success in Egypt.

Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt
April Awhile the world has beer
following with undated interest ano
curiosity the wonderful archaeological
discoveries in the Valley of the Kings
little thought has been given to the
years of toll, research and patience
given by archaeologists in these far.
off ruins in order that these wonders
of a vanished civilization may be
made available to present genera
tions. It is perhaps little understood
that the recent unearthing Of the
tomb of King Tutankhamen by How
ard Carter, the British excavator,
represents continuous effort of 33
years of research and excavation.
Carter began digging on the site of
Thebes, the ancient capital Of Egypt,
when he was eighteen and has never
ceased his labors.
He was never rich enough to con-
duct his own excavations, but has in
variably worked for others. Some of
his most notable work was done un-
der Theodore M. Davis, of Boston,
who from 1907 to 1914 discovered six
royal tonnbs and wealth of rare and
valuable antiquities. In more recent
years Carter has been associated with
Lord Carnarvon, who financed the ex-
cavating work of Tutankhamen's
tomb Carter has derived no pecu-
mary reward from his years of re-
search. A friend has described him
as "poor as a tomb mouse" Ameri-
can visitors at the newly-found tomb
have remarked that the now famous
excavator wears the same suit Of
clothes, the same hat and shoes, daily,
Sunday, and throughout the year.
Carter's devotion and labors in the
cause of Psychological science are
typical of the example of all excava-
tors British, American and French,
in the ancient ruins of Egypt. These
men may be described as modern her.
mits in this 5,OO0-year-old Valley of
the Kings. They lead one-sided and
narrow existence. Cut off from all
civilizing and uplifting influences, the
score or more of them who comprise
the foreign colonies Of Luxor move
within narrow groove and seldom
ever come in contact with one anoth-
er. Excavating is almost a religion
with them.
The Valley of the Kings and the
Theban hills, 450 miles up the Nile
from Carlo, are infested with wolves,
jackals, wild cats, foxes, snakes, liz
ards, scorpions, vultures, beetles and
vermin. The archaeologists live in
unpretentious stone and mortar
houses with nothing but the barest
rough-hewn furniture and the most
primitive household equipment. The
house occupied by the American ex-
perts was bdilt through the generous
ity of the late j. Pierpont Morgan,
who was moved to pity by their pri-
vations and exposure.
The natives of the valley are pa
thetically poor and untutored. Food
is scarce and expensive Water, where
it exists at all has to be brought
from afar in hand-buckets. The nights
are cold, and fuel is difficult to OBJ
tain. Many of the other needs of
life also are lacking. The heat of the
valley is distressingly severe during
the day, and the entire aera is
plauged with flies and pernicious in
sects.
The archaeologists have few social
contacts. They live like recluses The
whole west bank of the Nile in the
neighborhood of ancient Thebes is a
desolate, forbidding waste of mud,
sand and rock. No flower or vegeta-
BILE or blade of grass has reared it's
head above this barren terrain for
so centuries. Only the most prim-
tive roads exist Houses are few
and far between. In selecting this
place for their eternal entombment
the ancients chose with an eye to it's
solemnity, seclusion and silence. The
only human beings that move among
the sequestered ruins Of what was
once the most flourshing city in the
world are lean and spectre-like Arabs
dressed in white robes.
The American visitor to the cav
ernous valley which holds the impe-
rial dead of by-gone ages is over
awed by the majesty and dignity of
the great, precipitous sandstone cliffs
that stand sentinel on either side of
the metropolis. He is reminded of the
heights Of the Grand Canyon of the
: Colorado or of Yellowstone Falls
when the MONDAY sun transforms
them into a golden valley.
By day nothing disturbs the deer
repose of the place except the sound
of the pick-axes and shovels Of the
crowds Of native boys and men EN-.
ployed in combing the earth for its
still hidden archaeological treasures
By night the stiffness of the valley
of death is broken only. by the hoot
ing Of owls and the cries of jackals
and wildcats. In the midst of the
silence and solitude one feels himself
standing upon the brink of two
s-.1-