Howard Carter

Brief Biography

Howard Carter was born in London in 1874 on May 9th to father Samuel Carter and mother Martha Joyce (Sands) Carter.

The youngest of eight children, Howard Carter had an easy childhood, growing up in Swaffham in northern Norfolk. Although he had no formal education his father taught him in the fundamentals of drawing and painting.

Carter started work at the age of 17, copying inscriptions and paintings for the dig site of Beni Hassan (an Egyptian town with extensive catacombs on the East bank of the Nile), later coming under the tutelage of William Flinders Petrie.

In 1916 Carter discovered the remains of the pharaoh Hatshepsut in Dier el-Bahri, gaining himself much publicity among the local archaeological faction.

At the age of 25 he was offered a place at the Egyptian Antiquities Service (part of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture). However, in 1905, he...