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Primary sourcePhotograph16 December 1923

Removing the Lid of the Outermost Shrine

Harry Burton · 16 December 1923

A 1923 photograph of excavators lifting the lid of the first shrine enclosing Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.

Documents the careful removal of the shrine lid protecting Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.

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Black-and-white photograph of four men in a tomb chamber lifting a carved wooden shrine lid with raised arms, supported by wooden beams. The lid has carved hieroglyphic decoration. Two men wear white turbans and robes, and two wear shirts and trousers. Walls and ceiling are rough plaster.
Harry Burton, excavators lifting the roof of Tutankhamun's first shrine, 16 December 1923.

About this source

What it is

Taken by Harry Burton on 16 December 1923, this photograph shows the excavators of Tutankhamun's tomb using scaffolding to lift the roof of the first of four shrines enclosing the king's sarcophagus. The men shown include an unidentified Egyptian foreman, Howard Carter, a second foreman, and Arthur Callender.

Why it matters

This image documents one of the most delicate stages of the excavation, as workers carefully removed the massive shrine covering the sarcophagus. It highlights both the scale of the engineering challenge and the collaborative effort of the Egyptian and British members of the team, whose names are not always equally remembered.

Look closer

  • Why would such heavy objects need scaffolding and several people to move safely?
  • What does the identification of some men but not others tell us about how history records credit?
  • What might this stage of the work have revealed about what lay inside?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Tutankhamun on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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c. 1333 BCE

Black and white photograph of a wooden figure wearing a striped royal headdress with a uraeus cobra, crossed arms holding ceremonial objects, and hieroglyphic inscriptions in columns on the lower body.Photograph

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Photograph of Tutankhamun's Shawabti Figure

Harry Burton · 1920s

Interior wall of an Egyptian tomb painted gold, with rows of painted baboon figures and hieroglyphs in boxed panels, a boat scene at top left, and a painted standing figure of a pharaoh at right. A glass display case is visible at the bottom.Artifact

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Tomb of Tutankhamun

14th century BCE

Black and white photograph of two men inside a tomb opening the carved, hieroglyph-covered gilded doors of a shrine. One man in a light cap kneels and reaches toward the doors, while another man in a jacket leans over from the right. Carved relief figures and inscriptions cover the panels.Photograph

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Opening the Doors of the Fourth Shrine in Tutankhamun's Tomb

Harry Burton · 1920s

Photo of the Restoration Stela, a tall round-topped reddish stone stele in a museum with carved relief figures at the top and rows of hieroglyphic text below, with a diagonal crack running through it.Document

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Restoration Stela

Tutankhamun · c. 1326 BCE

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