FIVE YEARS' EXPLORATIONS AT THEBES - A RECORD OF WORK DONE 1907-1911 BY THE EARL OF CARNARVON AND HOWARD CARTER (1912)

Publisher's quarter vellum binding with black titles on front panel and titles in gilt on spine.

xii + 100 pages of text, followed by 79 captioned plates.

Preface and Introduction by the Earl of Carnarvon.

Eight of the fourteen chapters were written by Howard Carter.

The remaining six chapters were contributed by George Legrain, Percy E. Newberry, F. Ll. Griffith, Wilhelm Spiegelberg, and George Möller.

Binding sound. Contents clean. Ex libris of Andrew Fleming on the front paste down. This copy still retains its original dust jacket which is complete except for some minor instances of paper loss along the top edge. The hinge of the rear flap is torn from the bottom upwards to the middle but with no loss of paper. The top edge is reinforced with tape on the inside but I think a good paper restorer may be able to reverse this.

The book is an archaeological report documenting the joint excavations by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter in the Theban Necropolis of Egypt between 1907 and 1911, detailing discoveries of ancient tombs, artefacts, and burial practices before their famous King Tutankhamun discovery. It details specific digs in the hills of Thebes, focusing on tombs from the 17th Dynasty up to the Ptolemaic period. It features specialised contributions from expert scholars, such as F. Ll. Griffith, George Legrain, George Möller, Percy Newberry, and Wilhelm Spiegelberg, analysing specific inscriptions, statuettes, and hieratic texts. It provides meticulous photographs, architectural drawings, and descriptions of funerary objects, jewelry, and chapels recovered during the five-year permit window.

FIVE YEARS' EXPLORATIONS AT THEBES is a work produced by the efforts of two men who shared a profound love for ancient Egypt and who had not the slightest idea that in a mere ten years their names would take prime position in the pantheon of egyptology.