“1:15 p.m. on Sunday”. Adventurers of the Forgotten World > Episodes 3 & 4

This unpublished series in four episodes (1 & 2; 3 & 4) of the magazine “1:15 p.m. on Sunday” (Twitter, #1:15 p.m.), signed Patrice Brugère, Edouard Mounier and Mathilde Rougeron, look back on the extraordinary destinies of two major Egyptologists: the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) and the Briton Howard Carter (1874-1939). A century apart, their work is closely linked: the deciphering of hieroglyphs on September 14, 1822 opened the way to a new science essential to understanding the forgotten world of Egyptian Antiquity; one hundred years later, on November 4, 1922, one of the greatest archaeological events of all time occurred, the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (born around -1345 and died around -1327).

Thanks to Champollion, his method of deciphering and his first work on the monuments of Egypt, Carter was able to discover, a century later, the prodigious treasure of the eleventh pharaoh of the XVIIIth dynasty hidden in the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. The two men are brought together by the Egyptian land, both experienced and fantasized. Very early on, they had the same desire for ancient Egypt, the same thirst for adventure in the land of the pyramids, and crossed this bewitching country, according to their genius, their obsessions and the convulsions of History.

Curse of the Pharaohs?

While going through a bad patch in Egypt, Howard Carter had an intuition: Tutankhamun’s tomb must exist… but where? How did the British archaeologist and Egyptologist find the means to organize the excavations and delve into the bowels of the Valley of Mysteries?

Lord Carnarvorn, this very rich patron fond of archeology who had teamed up with Howard Carter for almost ten years, was on his way to Egypt. Would he let himself be convinced to embark on a final campaign of excavations… after years of fruitless research? Before suffering the curse of the pharaohs?

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