The tomb of Thutmose II and Howard Carter’s suitcase still fascinate the world of Egyptology

Two things as different as a tomb and a suitcase have caused a jolt of pleasure among lovers of Ancient Egypt in recent days. The discovery of the long-sought tomb of Thutmose II coincided with the recovery of Howard Carter’s suitcase. The latter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Both finds come just a few months ahead of the July opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

The tomb of the pharaoh — also known by its tomb number Wadi C-4 — has been identified in a valley in the ancient Theban necropolis (modern-day Luxor), while the suitcase came to light when it was auctioned off at the Elstob house in Ripon, UK, by it current owner. For years, it was forgotten under a bed in a North England village. It was sold to an anonymous buyer, who bid by telephone on February 27 for £12,000 ($15,500), or 11 times the starting price.

Curiously, both the tomb and the suitcase were relatively empty. In the former — badly damaged by flooding over the centuries — its owner’s remains weren’t present. The mummy of Thutmose II was found with those of many other kings back in 1881, in Deir el-Bahari, a complex of mortuary temples. It’s currently on display in Cairo.

The newly-discovered tomb contained only a few vestiges of the pharaoh’s funerary trousseau. Meanwhile, inside the suitcase — which has been battered by time, travel and the sand of Egypt — there was only an old guidebook, a worn copy. Titled The Nile, Notes for Travelers in Egypt (1890), it belonged to Carter and was dedicated to Harry Burter, the photographer of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The book was auctioned off along with the suitcase.

The tomb, which is still being studied, has yielded highly relevant information, specifically about a very complex moment in the 18th dynasty, which marked the start of the New Kingdom of Egypt 3,500 years ago. This was the moment when one of the most important and revolutionary women in Ancient Egypt and in world history emerged: Queen Hatshepsut, half-sister and royal wife of Thutmose II, who herself reigned as pharaoh. The inscription on the tomb indicates that Hatshepsut conducted the funeral of Thutmose II, something that only a successor could do, which legitimized her in this role.

But what’s more, the director of the British-Egyptian team that discovered the tomb (which was found back in 2022, but was only recently identified as that of Thutmose II), Piers Litherland, claims that they’re on the verge of discovering the pharaoh’s second tomb. This is where his belongings and mummy would have been placed, after the first one was flooded.

Litherland affirms that this second tomb is likely intact, possibly with the real mummy of Thutmose II inside. He feels that the mummy found in the cachette at Deir el-Bahari, and which can currently be viewed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, isn’t the authentic one. The Egyptologist thinks that this mummy is too old to be that of Thutmose II, who may have died at an even younger age than the 30 years attributed to the mummified body in the museum. Litherland believes that the unusual layout of Wadi C-4, with an extra corridor linking the most important chamber (the largest of the four and the only one that’s decorated) to the main entrance passage, is because this corridor was used to remove the pharaoh’s mummy and valuable items when the tomb was flooded shortly after it was closed. He estimates that the move occurred six years after the initial entombment.

The Egyptologist argues that the lack of objects retrieved from the burial of Thutmose II on display in museums and collections (except for the few remains now found in Wadi C-4) proves that the real final tomb is yet to be found and remains intact. He claims that it’s located under 75 feet of limestone chunks, rubble and mud that were dumped on it, so as to keep it hidden. The story — “the stuff of dreams,” as hailed by a British media outlet — is almost as good as the theory that Nefertiti’s tomb was hidden behind the wall of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber (a theory developed by Nicholas Reeves, which has kept the world in suspense since 2015).

“It’s a wonderful find,” says José Manuel Galán, director of the Djehuty Project, when asked about the discovery of the (first) tomb of Thutmose II. He speaks with EL PAÍS via Viber from Cairo, where he has concluded his own excavation season in the Draʻ Abu el-Naga’ necropolis, located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Egypt. For Galán — a passionate epigraphist (an expert who studies inscriptions) — the most wonderful thing is the inscription that shows Hatshepsut as the one in charge of her husband and brother’s funeral and, therefore, as his legitimate heir. “It’s the same thing Ay (the penultimate pharaoh) did with Tutankhamun,” the Egyptologist recalls. He points out that this is another of the very few cases in which we have evidence of a transfer of power between pharaohs, so to speak.

Galán is less enthusiastic about the second tomb. “It sounds strange to me, we all need a good [story] to continue excavating… anyways, the [site] is very cool and he’s a good Egyptologist. Let’s see what happens.”

Salima Ikram, the renowned Egyptologist, is also excited about the discovery of the tomb of Thutmose II. But she also points out her reservations about the idea of a second tomb. “There’s no basis for it,” she shrugs. Mari Carmen Pérez Die, the veteran director of excavations at Heracleopolis Magna, a site located in Beni Suef, Egypt, joins in the enthusiasm for the “fantastic” discovery. However, she has criticized the Egyptian authorities for wrongly announcing it as the first discovery of a royal tomb since that of Tutankhamun (1922), ignoring the discoveries of Pierre Montet in Tanis in 1939 and others. Pérez Die also calls for recognition of the subsequent discoveries of tombs of queens and princesses, which she considers equally important. In any case, she stresses, “enthusiasm for Ancient Egypt is always welcome.”

What Carter’s suitcase can contribute is of a different nature. It’s an element of another type of history, one that’s different from the modern science that is Egyptology. Beyond the emotional chill that comes from imagining what Howard Carter must have carried in that leather suitcase (in addition to his underwear, there must have been some of the pieces that he took from Tutankhamun’s tomb), the story of the bag perhaps offers a glimpse into something almost more mysterious than a closed Egyptian tomb: the heart of an Egyptologist.

Howard Carter was a sickly, private person. He never married, had no children and isn’t known to have had any romantic relationships. T. G. H. James — author of his landmark biography, titled Howard Carter: The Path to Tutankhamun (1992) — admits that the Egyptologist was a difficult person, with an “irascible shyness.” In fact, Carter’s life shows no sign of any close relationship, either with women or men. It has been suggested that he may have had a French lover, but this is nothing more than a rumor. And the story that he may have had a romantic relationship with Lady Evelyn Herbet, the daughter of his boss, Lord Carnarvon, has been exploited in some novels and films, but this has been ruled out by James.

Carter’s behavior and reserve in this aspect of his life has led to speculation about whether he was homosexual, something that would have needed to be kept a secret, given the times. Some believe that his complex relationship with Carnarvon hints at this orientation.

The suitcase’s history may provide a glimpse into a genuine sentimental connection. Carter had acquired it in 1920 and — marked with his initials — used it on all his travels. Each year, following excavations, he returned to his London home in Kensington. When he left Egypt for the last time, in 1939, he gave it to a friend, John Tim Healey, who used it until he retired to Northern England, in 1970. It remained in his home until his death.

Derek Healey, John’s son, inherited the suitcase after his father passed away. It remained under his bed until he decided to sell it earlier this year. He contacted a local antiquities expert and BBC contributor, David Harper. He authenticated the suitcase and saw its full importance and its evocative power as a true “time machine,” skillfully highlighting the connection with Tutankhamun. In conversation with the BBC, he highlighted “the glamor, the glory and the intrigue” behind the suitcase.

Harper noted that he doesn’t believe that the suitcase contains the supposed curse of Tutankhamun, as it would have already affected Derek Healey after 50 years of sleeping above it. However, he suggests that the suitcase probably carried Carter’s important documents and, surely, “objects from Tut’s tomb.”

The suitcase had no such use when it was in John Healey’s hands. But, in a sentimental sense, the item retained all of its importance for the friend of the famous Egyptologist. Healey and Carter met when the former was working in Luxor for the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Healey, a mechanical engineer, joined the institution’s Epigraphic Survey in 1932 as superintendent in charge of maintaining its headquarters, Chicago House. For eight months a year, he was a jack-of-all-trades and an occasional archeologist between 1932 and 1970. Healey was regarded as an indispensable character, as his skill and efforts — “sometimes heroic,” notes a memoir of that period — were valued in keeping the institution running flawlessly.

According to his son, who visited his father in Egypt with his mother Doris and sister Val, John and Carter became good friends and spent evenings together in the bars of Luxor. Carter had stopped working on Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1931 and spent much of his time at Medinet Habu (where the Epigraphic Survey was based), or on the terrace of the Winter Palace discussing future explorations, such as the search for the tomb of Alexander the Great, which he would never undertake. The late 1930s were a period of inactivity and decline for Carter, culminating in his death in 1939 from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Healey was one of the few people who attended his burial in Putney Cemetery, London.

“If I had known the story of the suitcase and Healey before, I would have incorporated it into my novel about Carter,” says writer Luis Melgar, author of The Valley of the Kings Conspiracy (2022), a highly entertaining thriller about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the death of Carnarvon. The fictionalized work presents Howard Carter as a tormented man who cannot stand to be touched.

Melgar is passionate about Ancient Egypt (he’s published three novels on the subject already) and he’s enthusiastic about the discovery of the tomb of Thutmose II. “Hatshepsut, the central character of my novel, You Will Not Forget My Name, would be delighted if they had found the tomb of her poor ‘Tuty,’ a minor pharaoh, certainly, but whose grave was one of those that remained to be identified from the New Kingdom.”

Salima Ikram finds the idea that the suitcase could shed light on Carter’s alleged sexual identity to be far-fetched and “sensationalist.” Galán, however, is more open to the idea. “I’m a fan of Carter and the truth is that Egypt is full of stories to tell. The stories are cool. The one about the suitcase is romantic and dramatic and invites you to let your imagination run wild… why not? Not everything has to be pure science. It’s suggestive that he gave his friend something as personal as his suitcase. And that [his friend] used it and kept it.”

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