Sifting the dust from the floor of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, Egypt, 1922. Sir Charles Cust (in soft hat), the King's Equerry, with Mr Callender. The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) was one of the most astounding discoveries in archaeology. Tutankhamun was a previously unknown pharaoh whose name had been eradicated from historical records by one of his successors because of his association with the heretical pharaoh Akhenaten, who was Tutankhamun's father-in-law. Consequently his tomb, uniquely, had remained undisturbed by grave robbers.