Carter takes a sabbatical after sting!
[ Back Story : Howard Carter’s biographer T G H ( Harry) James rightly remarks that what happened at Sakkarah in 1905
“ has been seriously misrepresented.” James found fault with the accounts of the story by Percy Newberry and Sir William Flinders
Petrie especially in Newberry’s comment that “ as a result of his [ Carter’s]
refusal [ to apologise to the Cairo officials ] he had to resign his post” and Flinders Petrie’s statement that “he [ Carter] was, on demand
of the French, dismissed from the [ Antiquities] Service..” ]
Part 4( of 5)
Carter was not
dismissed
It was Howard Carter who
made the decision himself to
leave the Antiquities Service. Although he was not forced to resign, nor was he dismissed, it could be argued in the
context of modern day employment law
that this was a compelling case of constructive dismissal, since Carter
was humiliated, his decision making
challenged and his public
standing undermined. His
boss, Gaston Maspero, was powerless to help, owing to work commitments he was stationed miles away in the south for most of January of 1905. Maspero's deputy took charge of Carter’s
predicament over the Sakkarah affair. The fact that Maspero was missing
at this crucial time - is another oddity in the plan of the assault on Carter’s tenure.
Gaston Mesparo : Powerless to save Carter from humiliation
Why Carter was dangerous and vulnerable to his
enemies
Tomb Robbers
Life for the Chief Inspector was all about tomb protection
and preservation. Carter introduced a
new system for each. For the shy, autistic
30-year-old it was demanding handling
unscrupulous tomb robbers - but Carter was tomb- wise, and culture-conscious, he knew how to deal with native thieves and harness gossip; sometimes there was zero tolerance shown to
offenders, but summary justice in the case of misdemeanors where the
thief was caught red -handed was comparable with the retribution that might be
dished out in the manner or the style of an old British police bobby
administering the equivalent of the proverbial ‘clip around the ear’ or running the villain out of town.
There was a certain respect for Carter from some of the most
permissive, sneaky or habitual of the
local grave robbers. However not all parties were impressed, Carter was dangerous, intrusive and some wanted him out of their hair, he was an obstacle
preventing several people making their assured
living.
In more serious cases
of monument or artifact stealing there were often high stakes involved, robbers might also
claim they were working for or as agents
of foreign museums, including handlers for
the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, or the Egyptian
Museum in Berlin. As a civilian, and later Carter was known to have supplied pieces to agents of these establishments, but
he was not persuaded by those who
appealed to him and offered this as a defence, thus he was laying
himself vulnerable as a target for outing as a man with double- standards.
Carter’s Excavations
with Theodore M Davis in 1902
With Maspero’s backing during 1902 Carter worked as an
excavator for the retired American lawyer
Theodore M Davis. Carter had a price for turning a blind eye, but
usually his involvement or
discretion was not readily for sale, it was a question of the new Inspector
permitting arrangements under generous digging agreements to keep items or otherwise applying
the letter of the law through the
Courts, thus Davis was able to get things out of Egypt to the USA, whilst native culprits found their removal of pieces was subject to prosecution. Maspero
allowed many Egyptian treasures
to go abroad in his years as head of the Antiquities Service.
An Inspector Calls
In his time as Inspector there were a number of difficult theft cases for Carter to see through,
and these did not always go Carter’s way, bribes to Court and government officials were endemic. Other cases did not go down without an instance or two involving a
threat to Carter’s life from a museum agent, a
bandit cell or criminal gang.
Despite Carter’s
strict policing he was still
held in a certain tongue in cheek esteem
by the ruthless gang leaders, who
were known to kill or maim those who stood against them. However since by tradition all Egyptians had their price and were known for ‘ selling their own
grandmother’, the chain of the populace
involved in securing their percentages went to the very heart of the nation, the cuts included several British and
non Egyptian overseers; it is
understandable there was a movement for
Carter’s comeuppance and removal.
Carter’s early mix
of success and dangers averted, his
heavy duties at Sakkarrah proved
to be the pre-cursor to the achingly personal disaster
that catapulted his entire career back down to terra-firma. Not a direct body
blow from a robber or murderer
but a below the belt attack, a
stitch up from two-faced colleagues and diplomatic administrators clamoring for
obedience. There remains more than
a whiff of it all being a joint
exercise to ‘ Get Carter’.
Carter Brought Down
Carter’s morale was brought down to its
lowest point in any of the ten and more years he had already
worked the desert doing service for virtually no great reward in an unforgiving Egyptian landscape with hideous heat, toiling
for several hard taskmasters, all bent on finding Royal gold and glory for
themselves.
As with the more
familiar lock-out of Tutankhamun’s
tomb that Carter orchestrated in 1924 he
was never capable mentally of giving
way in an argument, although in this earlier case at Sakkarah his
high principled stand in failing to
offer an apology in the matter
was heated, heady and hopeless, and played out into the hands of the assassins
behind his fall.
Maspero was out
of the way when the deed
was done to crush
Carter and silenced
Maspero was morified at his
protégé’s professional
assassination, but was silenced like
Carter’s other allies Petrie and to a lesser extent, Carter’s one time patron, the American, Theodore M Davis.
The Government Executive in Cairo instructed
Maspero to remove Carter
from Sakkarah and push him on to
a less interesting ‘relative backwater’
post at Tanta ( Tantah ) in the Nile Delta.
This ( as expected by his enemies) infuriated Carter, he protested
to Maspero that “
the treatment I have received after I
have carried out my duty which has always been my endeavour and after my
services to the department is inconceivable …..” Maspero’s
hands were tied to his line management’s demands, besides which Carter
was without remorse, so damaged his case.
It was made clear to Carter in a letter from Maspero, acting
as the whipping boy for Sir William Garstin, that Carter was reprimanded.
However it is far
from convincing that Carter was not set up. He was told he
was being moved to Tantah
not on account of [ his action] at Sakkara but because of [ his ]
subsequent conduct…[ also described as his
‘action after the event’ ] ” [ i.e. failing to apologise or offering
an expression of regret..to the French
Counsul-General ].
Carter was on verge of the first of several nervous
breakdowns that dogged him for decades.
He did not go
immediately to Tantah but consider his options. After a flurry of newspaper accusations ( mostly anti- Carter ), further
correspondence and meetings – he was crushed. [Harry
James outlines all these circumstances and side shows in terrific detail in his book ‘The Path to Tutankhamun ‘ : a long transcription of which will appear as an End Note in the forthcoming new book by William Cross. ].
Brow-beaten Carter requested leave, sweeping in the mitigation
of ‘the
strain of work’ over the previous 17 months. It was after this, with a period
of time spent in England –during which Carter contemplated a campaign for
justice for his cause – but later changed his mind. After return to Egypt and a
further interlude of soul searching he
resigned for ever from the Egyptian Antiquities Service, in October 1905.
Carter seeks a
Sabbatical
The Sakkarah affair had overshadowed Carter’s life making
it a misery for all of nine months. Much
of the pain was self-inflicted, he moved
away from a promising career for a
unstable sabbatical, becoming a freelance antiquities
dealer and agent, first in Cairo and later he returned to his hobby of
a roaming artist doing water colour landscapes and birds, and running tours for
visitors at Luxor and other tomb sites.
Carter : Habitue of
Cafes and Sleuth
Whilst this uneasy phase of his life after Sakkarah marked an obvious low point
Carter always kept his ear to the
grindstone. He was “ a habitué of the
Egyptian cafes..” unlike his “ status conscious colleagues” who
thought such places beneath their dignity. If there was gossip or a rumor Carter heard it first, if there was a
crumb or crust to be made from any
antiquities deal brewing, Carter wanted input and a
share. Carter knew all the thieves and tomb robbers of Cairo and Luxor by sight
and ( like Sherlock Holmes ) could
work out that a job was in
hand by the conspirators drinking tea
together. He was an expert on antiquities, he
also knew how to buy for and sell
items on to third parties. After his years as a draftsman- tracer and excavator then as an Inspector preventing and investigating robberies Carter
had the experience of a sleuth with the skills of a Scotland Yard detective.
The enforced
exile from October 1905 was
not easy. The best years for
Carter were yet to come especially his renowned
partnership with Lord George Carnarvon, one of the many wealthy collectors of Egyptian antiquities that Carter had come across during the Cairo
season from December to March each year
that saw an bountiful influx
of British and American buyers.
The last part of this Book Blog will appear shortly
This is a rough draft
of part of a proposed chapter in “ Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun
Revisited : The Hidden Truths and Doomed Relationships”
By William Cross, FSA Scot.
To be published 4 November 2016
Any queries please contact the Author William Cross, by e-mail
williecross@aol.com
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