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Primary sourcePhotograph1920s

The Great Shrine in Tutankhamun's Tomb After Removal of the Partition

Harry Burton · 1920s

An excavation photograph showing the gilded shrine inside Tutankhamun's burial chamber, newly revealed when a dividing wall was taken down.

Shows the gilded shrine built to protect Tutankhamun's burial, photographed during the excavation of his tomb.

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Black-and-white photograph of a large carved gilded-style wooden shrine inside a rock-cut tomb. Its panels show rows of standing figures in relief, with a cornice above and rough stone walls and ceiling around it.
Harry Burton, excavation photograph of the great shrine in Tutankhamun's tomb, 1920s. Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities, Sweden.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white photograph taken by Harry Burton, the official photographer for Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb. It shows the large gilded wooden shrine standing inside the burial chamber, photographed just after a partition wall blocking the view had been removed. The print is held by the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Sweden.

Why it matters

The photograph documents one of the most famous archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. It records the tomb's contents as they were first revealed to Carter's team, giving historians and students a direct visual record of the shrine protecting Tutankhamun's remains. It also shows the careful documentation methods used by early 20th-century archaeologists.

Look closer

  • What details on the shrine's panels can you make out, and what might they have meant to the ancient Egyptians who made them?
  • Why do you think the excavators photographed every stage of their work so carefully?
  • What does this image not show about how the tomb was found or who built the shrine?

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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Photograph of the gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun against a black background. The mask shows a stylized face with inlaid blue eyes and eyebrows, a striped blue and gold headdress, a vulture and cobra emblem on the brow, a blue false beard, and a collar of colored inlays.Artifact

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Mask of Tutankhamun

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

Primary source

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

Primary source

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

Primary source

Restoration Stela

Tutankhamun · c. 1326 BCE

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