Kevin Greene discusses how there is no right way to do archaeology and the processes involved in attaining results are more important than the results themselves in his book Archaeology, An Introduction: The History, Principles, and Methods of Modern Archaeology (8).  Many different approaches can be taken when beginning to dig on a site that all still lead to the final ancient artifact.  Even though there are numerous strategies to unearth artifacts, some techniques suit different situations better than others.  Unfortunately archaeology was not always as sophisticated as it is today.  In the past, mistakes have been made and history has lost fascinating pieces due to those mistakes.  One example of this includes Howard Carter's destruction of a mural of Isis, an Egyptian goddess, located in King Tutankhamen's tomb.  The wall the mural painted on was the entrance way he chose to the tomb in 1922.

Looking back on the situation, new solutions to entering King Tutankhamen's tomb become apparent that would have saved the mural of Isis.  This was the task given to our team of investigators: Find the best way to remove King Tutankhamen's coffin and keep Isis intact.  After brainstorming different ideas, we concocted a plan.  First we would drill down a small hole from outside the top of the tomb.  A probe would be sent down in order to measure the depth between the tomb and the surface.  Depending on the level of sophistication of the probe it could even be possible to attach a camera to the end to further survey the tomb before beginning to dig.  In the chamber beside Tutankhamen's tomb digging would commence where the blue arrow is in the above picture.  We would dig down into the rock with hammers and picks in order to create a tunnel down and up into Tutankhamen's tomb where the purple arrow is located.  Mechanical tools would not be used because the rock in the tomb is very brittle and susceptible to cracking.  Hand tools would give more control over how much force would be applied when digging.  The tunnel would then be supported with wood planks to avoid its collapse.  Once inside the tomb it would be necessary to get other supplies in as well.  A rope pulley system could be set up in order to easily transport the items.  Foam would first be brought in to cover and preserve the mural of Isis, as well as the other murals on the walls.  We decided digging up to the surface from inside Tutankhamen's tomb would be the easiest means of extraction of the sarcophagus and all of the other contents of the burial chamber.  This calls for multiple small tarps to be brought in next.  The below picture shows where one tarp would be hung inside the tomb with the green arrows.  These would hook into the ceiling in a canopy type fashion.   They serve the purpose of collecting fallen rock from the upward digging.  Multiple tarps would be used in order to protect the entire tomb and also be able to dig through the ceiling at the same time. Digging would begin from the center of the ceiling (where the red arrow is located) and work would continue outward from there.  Once the hole in the ceiling was large enough to extract Tutankhamen's sarcophagus, ropes would be brought in and attached to it, in order for it to be lifted out by a crane.            

I held the responsibility of finding out general information about archaeology to help the group construct our plan.  This made it possible to devise a plan different from Carter's that could potentially have saved the mural of Isis if we had been the original archaeologists on site.  Because there are so many different ways excavation can take place it was important to sift though the information about archaeology carefully in order to find techniques that would apply to the task at hand.  Throughout my research I came to more dead ends than I would have expected when looking at general archaeology.  Much of the information I found was relating to digging out specific artifacts and not an entire tomb.  Although some of the information I found was not extremely helpful, it was still interesting at the same time.  

Many of the techniques I found information on were processes involved in locating sites.  One technology used prior to knowing if a site exists is aerial photography.  Aerial photography can help to determine the location of buried sites by examining the discoloration of soil or vegetation in different areas (Greene 41).  One aspect of vegetation that is taken note of are crop marks, which indicate whether or not something is buried by examining the growth of the surrounding plants.  Greene explains that "Since a key factor is the availability of moisture to their roots, abnormal conditions emphasize the height and colour of crops during growth and ripening" (43).  This information did not contribute to the final plan due to the fact that King Tutankhamen's tomb is located in a dessert where vegetation is sparse.        

Some of the facts that I found were more helpful when devising the plan for excavating King Tutankhamen's tomb.  One piece of information I learned form Kevin Greene's book was the importance of recording what you see and excavate during the whole process (37). He even goes as far to say that "discovery is pointless without recording" (Greene 37).  This prevents the loss of any details of a specific place if a mishap occurred during excavation.  Having good technology for the recording process is also very useful.  Archaeologists know that "initial investment of time and energy in recording data in an appropriate form is repaid by the flexibility that it allows at the analytical stage" (Greene 57).   

Despite Howard Carter's destruction of the mural of Isis, it is important to focus on the process of archaeology.  Observing and recording can be just as useful as actual artifacts.   A lot was learned from this destruction as well which helped to improve the science as a whole.  It would be ideal to turn back the hands of time and excavate King Tutankhamen's tomb in a non-destructive manner, but without that possibility, archaeologists simply need to be more creative and cautious in the future.  Archaeology has come a long way since Howard Carter's time and by moving on into the future, we improve the skills to discover things about the past.          

Works Cited:

Greene, Kevin.  Archaeology, An Introduction: The History, Principles, and Methods of Modern Archaeology.  London; New York: Routledge, 1995.  NetLibrary. 3 November 2009.   

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