Google pays tribute to archaeologist with Egyptian-themed doodle

Internet giant Google paid tribute to English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter, a primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun, with one of its patented doodles Wednesday.

 

Google, which marked Carter’s 138th birth anniversary, greeted visitors at its home page with a doodle depicting a Carter discovering a pharaonic tomb.

 

A Twitter post confirmed the man in the doodle was Carter, surveying the treasures Clicking on the doodle, as in the past, would take the visitor to a Search Results page for Howard Carter, who was born May 9, 1874 and died March 2, 1939.

 

Carter gained fame for his work in discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun, considered as the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb found in the Valley of the Kings.

 

In November 1922, he made a "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of the doorway, and was able to peer in by the light of a candle and see that many of the gold and ebony treasures were still in place.

 

On Feb. 16, 1923, Carter opened the sealed doorway, and found the burial chamber – and had his first glimpse of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

 

Following his sensational discovery, Howard Carter retired from archaeology and became a part-time agent for collectors and museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

 

He died of lymphoma, a type of cancer, in Kensington, London, on March 2, 1939 at age 64, amid skeptics’ claim  of a supposed "curse of the pharaohs" that hounded the party that violated Tutankhamun's tomb. — ELR, GMA News