They are among the most famous and compelling photographs ever made in archaeology: Howard Carter kneeling before the burial shrines of Tutankhamun; life-size statues of the boy king on guard beside a doorway, tantalizingly sealed, in his tomb; or a solid gold coffin still draped with flowers cut more than 3,300 years ago. Yet until now, no study has explored the ways in which photography helped mythologize the tomb of Tutankhamun, nor the role photography played in shaping archaeological methods and interpretations, both in and beyond the field. This book undertakes the first critical analysis of the photographic archive formed during the ten-year clearance of the tomb, and in doing so explores the interface between photography and archaeology at a pivotal time for both. Photographing Tutankhamun foregrounds photography as a material, technical, and social process in early 20th-century archaeology, in order to question how the photograph made and remade ‘ancient Egypt’ in the waning age of colonial order.
Author(s): Christina Riggs
Series: Photography, History: History, Photography
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 272
Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication page
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1 PHOTOGRAPHING TUTANKHAMUN: AN INTRODUCTION
Introducing the Tutankhamun excavation
Finding Tutankhamun
Losing Tutankhamun
Recovering Tutankhamun
Photographing Tutankhamun
2 MIRRORED MEMORIES: EXCAVATING THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
In the mirror: archive, archaeology, photography
A share of the spoils
Doubling up
Negative numbers
Transatlantic Tutankhamun
3 ‘THE FIRST AND MOST PRESSING NEED’: PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE AT THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMUN
In search of success
The organized archaeologist
Job done
4 TUTANKHAMUN’S TREASURES: OBJECTS, ARTWORKS, BODIES
The object in the archive
From artefact to art
Royalty and race
5 MEN AT WORK:THE RESURRECTION OF THE BOY-KING
Archaeological acts and photographic affects
The weight of antiquity
Resurrections in the archive
6 WORLDS EXCLUSIVE: MEDIATING TUTANKHAMUN
Copyright and control
The ambivalence of being modern
Just like us
7 THE LOOKING-GLASS: EGYPTOLOGY’S ARCHIVAL AFTERLIVES
Touring Tutankhamun
Egyptology and the archive
Alternative archives
SOURCES
INDEX
