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"Howard Carter: Famous Archaeologist, Not-So-Famous Painter" Didn’t know he was an artist too? "Tut tut!" by K. Annabelle Smith May 9th, 2012 Smithsonian.com It isn’t often that we hear anything about English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter other than this groundbreaking discovery of King Tut's chamber on November 4, 1922. But as we celebrate Carter’s 138th birthday, we also look to his lesser-known talent as an artist. Barn Owl To document his exploration and for his personal records, Howard Carter copied the hieroglyphics he discovered at the sites he worked on. A collection of these works can be found via the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford, who have Carter’s personal album in their collections. “These watercolors were made before photography was available to most people,” says Griffith Institute Archive Coordinator, Elizabeth Fleming, who has been working with the Carter material for about 28 years. “The only way you could record your journey was to make copies of them. Carter was a talented artist so he was able to do this for himself.” It was his skill as an artist that took him to Egypt as a 17-year-old working for the London-based Egypt Exploration Fund. He would make copies of hieroglyphics standing in front of the original in the tomb and often pair them with a version of the animal as it would appear in nature. “Carter had a very good eye. Certainly his copies of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics are very faithful based on that,” says Fleming. Horus Falcon This falcon is an example of one of the lifelike sketches Carter would create to compare to the hieroglyphics. “We know that Howard actually visited the zoo in Cairo to make these copies—he mentions it in letters to people things like ‘I went to the zoo today to sketch a vulture or to sketch an eagle.’ This is why he made such good copies,” says Fleming. The “Horus falcon,” associated with power and connected with several gods is one of the most frequently depicted birds in ancient Egypt. African Sacred Ibis In between excavation seasons, Carter had to find creative ways to earn a living. Museums would commission him to find and acquire objects for their collections and he would also produce romantic images of Egypt that he would sell to tourists visiting the ruins. “We’re talking about a time before photography—Carter would create something that people could take back with them,” she says. Watercolors like this one of an African Sacred Ibis, however, would not have been sold commercially. Depictions of this bird frequently occur both as hieroglyphs and in Egyptian art. Illustrations...Griffith Insititute, University of Oxford February 16th, 1923--Howard Carter/KV62/King Tutankhamun Howard Carter's voice--Valley of the Kings Bucks behind Tut's dig...George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

"Howard Carter: Famous Archaeologist, Not-So-Famous Painter" Didn’t know he was an artist too? "Tut tut!" by K. Annabelle Smith May 9th, 2012 Smithsonian.com It isn’t often that we hear anything about English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter other than this groundbreaking discovery of King Tut's chamber on November 4, 1922. But as we celebrate Carter’s 138th birthday, we also look to his lesser-known talent as an artist. Barn Owl To document his exploration and for his personal records, Howard Carter copied the hieroglyphics he discovered at the sites he worked on. A collection of these works can be found via the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford, who have Carter’s personal album in their collections. “These watercolors were made before photography was available to most people,” says Griffith Institute Archive Coordinator, Elizabeth Fleming, who has been working with the Carter material for about 28 years. “The only way you could record your journey was to make copies of them. Carter was a talented artist so he was able to do this for himself.” It was his skill as an artist that took him to Egypt as a 17-year-old working for the London-based Egypt Exploration Fund. He would make copies of hieroglyphics standing in front of the original in the tomb and often pair them with a version of the animal as it would appear in nature. “Carter had a very good eye. Certainly his copies of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics are very faithful based on that,” says Fleming. Horus Falcon This falcon is an example of one of the lifelike sketches Carter would create to compare to the hieroglyphics. “We know that Howard actually visited the zoo in Cairo to make these copies—he mentions it in letters to people things like ‘I went to the zoo today to sketch a vulture or to sketch an eagle.’ This is why he made such good copies,” says Fleming. The “Horus falcon,” associated with power and connected with several gods is one of the most frequently depicted birds in ancient Egypt. African Sacred Ibis In between excavation seasons, Carter had to find creative ways to earn a living. Museums would commission him to find and acquire objects for their collections and he would also produce romantic images of Egypt that he would sell to tourists visiting the ruins. “We’re talking about a time before photography—Carter would create something that people could take back with them,” she says. Watercolors like this one of an African Sacred Ibis, however, would not have been sold commercially. Depictions of this bird frequently occur both as hieroglyphs and in Egyptian art. Illustrations...Griffith Insititute, University of Oxford February 16th, 1923--Howard Carter/KV62/King Tutankhamun Howard Carter's voice--Valley of the Kings Bucks behind Tut's dig...George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

"Hieroglyphic signs could be used to convey either the sense of words or their abstract phonetic components, and in their simplest form were rendered simply in outline, or in cursive, handwritten forms, with little visual similarity to the pictorial originals. Here, however, it is noticeable that the artists who designed and painted these signs invested in them the same level of detail as they would purely pictorial representations of the animals they show. Such is the level of detail involved that, out of context, what are in fact glyphs could easily be mistaken for pictorial illustrations with no semantic meaning, and signs such as this, reproduced by Carter, are indistinguishable from those employed as elements of pictorial scenes elsewhere in the tombs. The curious ram-goat hybrid here, represents the god Khnum, and is complemented by a jug, which in this context has the same phonetic value as the name of the god. It forms part of the name of the tomb owner Khnumhotep, meaning ‘Khnum is satisfied’." - taken from ‘The Archaeological Survey’ by Christopher Naunton in The EES: the early years (www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/82885).

"Howard Carter: Famous Archaeologist, Not-So-Famous Painter" Didn’t know he was an artist too? "Tut tut!" by K. Annabelle Smith May 9th, 2012 Smithsonian.com It isn’t often that we hear anything about English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter other than this groundbreaking discovery of King Tut's chamber on November 4, 1922. But as we celebrate Carter’s 138th birthday, we also look to his lesser-known talent as an artist. Barn Owl To document his exploration and for his personal records, Howard Carter copied the hieroglyphics he discovered at the sites he worked on. A collection of these works can be found via the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford, who have Carter’s personal album in their collections. “These watercolors were made before photography was available to most people,” says Griffith Institute Archive Coordinator, Elizabeth Fleming, who has been working with the Carter material for about 28 years. “The only way you could record your journey was to make copies of them. Carter was a talented artist so he was able to do this for himself.” It was his skill as an artist that took him to Egypt as a 17-year-old working for the London-based Egypt Exploration Fund. He would make copies of hieroglyphics standing in front of the original in the tomb and often pair them with a version of the animal as it would appear in nature. “Carter had a very good eye. Certainly his copies of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics are very faithful based on that,” says Fleming. Horus Falcon This falcon is an example of one of the lifelike sketches Carter would create to compare to the hieroglyphics. “We know that Howard actually visited the zoo in Cairo to make these copies—he mentions it in letters to people things like ‘I went to the zoo today to sketch a vulture or to sketch an eagle.’ This is why he made such good copies,” says Fleming. The “Horus falcon,” associated with power and connected with several gods is one of the most frequently depicted birds in ancient Egypt. African Sacred Ibis In between excavation seasons, Carter had to find creative ways to earn a living. Museums would commission him to find and acquire objects for their collections and he would also produce romantic images of Egypt that he would sell to tourists visiting the ruins. “We’re talking about a time before photography—Carter would create something that people could take back with them,” she says. Watercolors like this one of an African Sacred Ibis, however, would not have been sold commercially. Depictions of this bird frequently occur both as hieroglyphs and in Egyptian art. Illustrations...Griffith Insititute, University of Oxford February 16th, 1923--Howard Carter/KV62/King Tutankhamun Howard Carter's voice--Valley of the Kings Bucks behind Tut's dig...George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

`Minieh On the Nile', 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`Quarries of Silsilis - Thebaid', 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`Temple of Dendoor. "On the Nile." By Moonlight. "Nubia", 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`Dendoor. Nubia', 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`Dakheh Nubia', 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`The Doum Palm Dendera "On the Nile", 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`Saki and Pigeon Towers - Farshoot - On the Nile', 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`River. 3 Mile [N] of Saboua Nubia "On the Nile", 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

`Excavated Roman Hall in an Egyptian Temple - Luxor. Thebes', 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez

Watercolour, Cleopatra's Needle, Alexandria, Egypt, 1860, by John Shae Perring

`Ibreem - The Ancient Castle of Premnis (parva) Nubia. Frontier Cantonment of the Romans "On the Nile", 1855. Watercolour in an album of views in Egypt and Nubia. General George de Sausmarez