Editing Howard Carter (section)

==Early life==
Howard Carter was born in [[Kensington]] on 9 May 1874,<ref>{{cite ODNB |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32312 |title=Carter, Howard (1874–1939), artist and archaeologist  |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32312 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date= 8 November 2022}}</ref> the youngest child (of eleven) of artist and illustrator [[Samuel John Carter]] and Martha Joyce Carter ({{nee|Sands}}). His father helped train and develop his artistic talents.{{sfn|Newberry|1939|p=67}}

Carter spent much of his childhood with relatives in the [[Norfolk]] [[market town]] of [[Swaffham]], the birthplace of both his parents.<ref>[http://www.aroundswaffham.co.uk/general/history Swaffham history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824101345/http://aroundswaffham.co.uk/general/history |date=24 August 2017 }} Retrieved 12 November 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.swaffhammuseum.co.uk/galleries/the-carter-centenary-gallery |title= The Carter Centenary Gallery|website=www.swaffhammuseum.co.uk |access-date=20 May 2012}}{{title missing|date=September 2022}}</ref> His father had previously relocated to London, but after three of the children had died young, Carter, who was a sickly child, was moved to Norfolk and raised for the most part by a nurse in Swaffham.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ingram |first=Simon |date=2022-10-17 |title=Unmasking Howard Carter – the man who found Tutankhamun |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/10/unmasking-howard-carter-the-man-who-found-tutankhamun |access-date=2023-05-03 |website=National Geographic |language=en-gb}}</ref>

Receiving only limited formal education at Swaffham, he showed talent as an artist. The nearby mansion of the Amherst family, Didlington Hall, contained a sizable collection of Egyptian antiques, which sparked Carter's interest in that subject. [[Mary Rothes Margaret Cecil, Baroness Amherst of Hackney|Lady Amherst]] was impressed by his artistic skills, and in 1891 she prompted the [[Egypt Exploration Fund]] (EEF) to send Carter to assist an Amherst family friend, [[Percy Newberry]], in the excavation and recording of [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] tombs at [[Beni Hasan]].{{sfn|Winstone|2006|pp=12–15}}

Although only 17, Carter was innovative in improving the methods of copying tomb decoration. In 1892, he worked under the tutelage of [[Flinders Petrie]] for one season at [[Amarna]], the capital founded by the pharaoh [[Akhenaten]]. From 1894 to 1899, he worked with [[Édouard Naville]] at [[Deir el-Bahari]], where he recorded the wall reliefs in the temple of [[Hatshepsut]].{{sfn|Newberry|1939|p=68}}

In 1899, Carter was appointed Inspector of Monuments for Upper Egypt in the [[Egyptian Antiquities Service]] (EAS) on the personal recommendation of [[Gaston Maspero]].{{sfn|Winstone|2006|p=66}} Based at [[Luxor]], he oversaw a number of excavations and restorations at nearby [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]], while in the [[Valley of the Kings]] he supervised the systematic exploration of the valley by the American archaeologist [[Theodore M. Davis|Theodore Davis]].{{sfn|Newberry|1939|p=68}} 

In early 1902, Carter began searching the Valley of the Kings on his own. He initially aimed at the southeast rocky wall of the valley basin. Despite being an inaccessible area, within 3 days he found what he was looking for: stone steps, sepulchral entrance, corridor, sarcophagus chamber, in short, the last home of the fourth Thutmose, carefully stripped (except for a few furnishings and a cart). While digging to find Thutmose IV's final resting place, Carter unearthed an alabaster cup and a small blue scarab with Queen Hatshepsut's name on it.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Pharaoh |title=The incredible life of Howard Carter and the discovery of the Tutankhamun tomb |url=https://www.neperos.com/article/rrgyre20b74b1a2a |website=Neperos.com |date=13 March 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref>

In February 1903, sixty meters north of the tomb of Thutmose IV, Carter found a stone bearing the ring with the name of Hatshepsut.<ref name=":0" />

In 1904, after a dispute with local people over tomb thefts, he was transferred to the Inspectorate of Lower Egypt.{{sfn|Winstone|2006|p=87}} Carter was praised for his improvements in the protection of, and accessibility to, existing excavation sites,{{sfn|Ford|1995|p=19}} and his development of a grid-block system for searching for tombs. The Antiquities Service also provided funding for Carter to head his own excavation projects.

Carter resigned from the Antiquities Service in 1905 after a formal inquiry into what became known as the Saqqara Affair, a violent confrontation that took place on 8 January 1905 between Egyptian site guards and a group of French tourists. Carter sided with the Egyptian personnel, refusing to apologise when the French authorities made an official complaint.{{sfn|Winstone|2006|pp=88–92}} Moving back to [[Luxor]], Carter was without formal employment for nearly three years. He made a living by painting and selling watercolours to tourists and, in 1906, acting as a freelance draughtsman for Theodore Davis.{{sfn|Winstone|2006|pp=93–95}}