‘Most private’ Letter from Carnarvon

We have published a new story today on the new Tutankhamun Spatial Archive. Read and enjoy! tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/stories/most...

Seeing the Archive as a Living Network: An Archivist’s Perspective on the Tutankhamun Archive

We are excited to share another new story, which is now available to read on the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive, this time about the archive as a living network! You can find the story here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/stories/seei...

This month we continue to update our new Tutankhamun Spatial Archive with material, including scientific notes - today we published notes on the first (outermost) sepulchral shrine which you can see here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/scientific-n...
As always, we welcome any feedback!

Job alert: A fixed-term lectureship in Egyptology (2 years) at Oxford, to cover the sabbatical leave of two members of staff, Richard Parkinson (2026-7) and Elizabeth Frood (2027-8); see
www.jobs.ac.uk/.../departme....
or search for 'Departmental Lecturer in Egyptology' on: jobs.ox.ac.uk

Another new story is now available to read on the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive, this time about some of the fascinating images and their creation process! You can find the story here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/stories/seei...

Plenty more to come in the next few weeks, as the next set of notes focus on each of the individual shrines. As always, we welcome any feedback!

We are busy updating the new Tutankhamun Spatial Archive with material, including scientific notes completed on several important objects - today we published several notes on the shrines which you can see here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/scientific-n...

You can find the publication here: www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php... and other Griffith Institute publications here: www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/publications...

The manuscript includes an introduction to the project and a series of chapters & drawings that discuss each piece of rebuilt furniture. A detailed diary from 28 September 1927 to 23 January 1930 provides vivid detail of the execution and progress of the work in his small workshop at Giza.

William A. Stewart was employed to reconstruct the furniture, and edited documents in this volume comprise the 1st draft of a manuscript that Stewart prepared for publication between 1947-53, today kept in the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford (archive.griffith.ox.ac.uk/index.php/st...).

It contained the queen's furniture made from wooden parts covered with thin sheets of precious metal. During the many centuries of burial, the wood had mostly decayed to a fine dust, leaving the metal coverings & inlays that had been attached to the furniture now scattered on the floor of the tomb.

In February 1925, a team from Harvard University - MFA, Boston, working on the Giza Plateau under the direction of Dr George Andrew Reisner, discovered the tomb of queen Hetepheres I, the wife of the pharaoh Snefru and the mother of Khufu.

New publication alert! An exciting new volume on the furniture of Hetepheres I, completed and edited by Geoffrey P. Killen (with contributions from Julie Dawson and Helen Farrar) is now available to purchase!

Re-creating Tutankhamun’s Mask in 3D: From Harry Burton’s Photographs to a Digital Model

While we work on uploading all of our Tutankhamun materials onto the new Spatial Archive, we're also working on some exciting collaborative projects including creating 3D models of some of the famous funerary objects. You can read about this work here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/stories/re-c...

We are busy updating the new Tutankhamun Spatial Archive with material and we are happy to announce that all related maps, plans, sketches and drawings are now available online! You can browse them here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/maps-plans-s...
As always, we welcome any feedback!

From all of us at the Griffith Institute, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's been a very exciting year for us with the launch of our new Tutankhamun Spatial Archive, and we are looking forward to sharing more in 2026. We hope you enjoy the new website, which now includes a brand new story you can read here: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/.../preservi....

This is thanks to our collaboration with @agilecollective (agile.coop) and also thanks to a generous grant from the John Fell Fund (innovation.ox.ac.uk/award-detail...)!

Explore Tutankhamun's tomb through the excavation records of Howard Carter and his team in the 1920s

100 years after Tutankhamun’s mummified body was unwrapped, we are retelling this story through the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive, a new searchable database of every archaeological record from the tomb’s excavation.
Explore the Beta release on the 1925 unwrapping: tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk

Tomorrow we unwrap a new way to explore Tutankhamun’s tomb. The Griffith Institute @UniofOxford will launch the Beta version of the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive featuring the king’s body, his funerary mask, & all the objects revealed during the 1925 unwrapping. #Tutankhamun #Archaeology #Egyptology

If you’re interested in learning more, you can read the journals and diaries of Howard Carter and Arthur Mace on our website (www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discov.../jo...).

The first look into the sarcophagus and cleaning of the outer coffin had already happened during the 3rd season, in early February 1925. At this stage, details such as the floral wreath placed across the forehead of the coffin lid were captured through the photography of Harry Burton.

Carter also recorded the linen sheets covering the coffin, which sadly were too fragile to survive but details were captured in his ‘object cards’, written for each item uncovered in the tomb.

On 13th October 1925, with an early start of 7am, Carter describes in his journal the inspection of the coffin and various technical considerations needed, considering the coffin size and the narrow dimensions of the Burial Chamber.

On this day 100 years ago, the team excavating the tomb of Tutankhamun removed the lid of the king’s outermost coffin.

Bechard

Hoskins

Horeau

Thinking of warmer climates with these shots of the Memphite statue of Ramesses II across various different collections! (Hoskins MSS 1.110, Horeau 4.2 and Béchard photograph 134).
صور من الأرشيف لتمثال رمسيس الثاني في ممفيس (ميت رهينه). Hoskins MSS 1.110, Horeau MSS 4.2 و Béchard photograph 134

جوارب أطفال من العصر المتأخر في مصر. حفائر جمعية استكشاف مصر بالشيخ عبادة (انطينوبوليس) علم ١٩١٣-١٩١٤.
من مجموعة John de Monins Johnson
Tiny late antique children’s socks discovered during the Egypt Exploration Fund’s 1913-14 excavations at Antinoupolis. From the John de Monins Johnson Collection

نتأمل جمال لوحة Wild I.C.12، هذه اللوحة الجميلة التي رسمها جيمس ويلد للسقف والأفريز داخل مقبرة كا و زوجته مريت TT 8.
We’ve just been admiring Wild MSS i.C.12, James Wild’s gorgeous painting of the ceiling and frieze of the tomb of the foreman Kha & his wife Merit (TT8, Deir el-Medina).

Another great image from the archive -
المدخل إلى بهو الأعمدة في معبد دير الحجر، واحة الداخلة، حوالي عام ١٨٧٣

The entrance to the hypostyle of the Temple of Deir el Hagar, Dakhla Oasis. c1873. Remelé MSS Da 01.

Recently we've been admiring early images of Egypt from the Simpson collection, including this beautiful fountain of the mosque of Mohammad Ali in Cairo. Photo taken in 1888 (Griffith Institute, Simpson Photograph Collection).
نافورة جامع محمد من مجموعة الفوتوغرافية علي - القاهرة في عام ١٨٨٨.​