Wild Animals As Pets Essay Example for Free

Wild Animals As Pets Essay How many of you have ever said you wanted a pet monkey when you were at the zoo last time? Or imagined how great it would be to have a tiger sleep at the foot of your bed instead of just a dog? That all sounds wonderful at first but how many people do you know that have ever had an exotic pet and not regretted it immediately? Its not really as great as you think. According to the Human Society of the United States in one of their recent surveys, 90% of exotic pets die within the first year and 90% of the remainder die in the second year. That means that only 1% lives past the age of two. Every year wild animals seriously hurt or kill people, usually their owners or family members. Big cats have killed many children and even grown men, not to mention the dogs’ people think their cougar will be friends with, they never survive. Monkeys are always the pet people wish they could have. However, they can never be trained, tamed, or basically domesticated like people think. Take Louie for example, a Black-capped capuchin born in August 2004. He was bought by a family in Chicago when he was just a baby. Within months he had bitten their daughter several times severely, but when he finally bit a child outside the family, his life was in danger. Louies owner found herself in court fighting against the parents of the child who demanded that his head be sent off for rabies testing.

Paul Cronan and New England Telephone Company :: essays research papers

1. Identification of the â€Å"critical or relevant facts† from the case† Paul Cronan was working for New England Telephone Company while diagnosed with ARC – Aids Related Complex and started showing symptoms of AIDS. His supervisors started to get concern with his job performance and health due to his very poor attendance, and the increased amount of absences. During spring 1985, Paul had requested permission on two different days to leave work due to a doctor’s appointment. Paul’s supervisor Charles O’Brian refused to grant him permission a third time, unless he informs him on the reason for the appointment. Charles O’Brian told Paul Cronan that it is company practice to inform the person’s supervisor of any matter which could involve affecting the attendance of an employee. Charles O’Brian insisted on knowing the nature of the doctor’s visits. He promised Paul Cronan that the information would be held in confidence. Charles O’Brian instructed Paul Cronan to see the New England Telephone Company’s doctor. The doctor determined that he had AIDS and recommended to see a psychiatrist. Within the company it became public news that he had AIDS. Other employees were getting afraid of the chance of getting AIDS from Paul Cronan. Paul Caronan started to feel very unsafe to return to work and had requested a medical leave. He soon started receiving sickness benefits. Paul Cronan’s physician sent a medical certificate stating that he was considered disabled for an estimated time frame of three months. The benefits for being disabled was approved for the three months and then extended for 9 months. Paul Cronan decided to sue New England Telephone Company for discrimination against his disability. It was decided by Paul Cronan to settle out of court and they had reached an agreement to let him return to work, and reach a financial settlement. They agreed to reassign Paul Cronan to a new facility in Needham. They also denied all of the allegations and had admitted to no wrong doing. New England Telephone Company agreed to educate the new workers about AIDS at the new facility in Needham. New England Telephone Company held an education meeting between workers and AIDS medical specialists. The doctors informed the employees there was no way AIDS can be transmitted with casual contract. The first day that Paul Cronan returned to work he was exposed to threats from his coworkers because of his sexuality and illness.

How effective is Citibank at resolving and retaining its staff? Essay

To provide Citibank with a report that recommends improvement to recruitment and retention. Objectives 1) To assess the benefit, if any provided by Citibank for its employees. 2) To select appropriate performance criteria for the reasurement of staff performance. 3) Examine and analyse employee perception of the current training provision. 4) Examine and evaluate other factors that may influence staff morale. In order to manage the performance of staff managers I will be using performance criteria: This is a handy measuring tool, which is used as a method by which I will be assessing people’s performance and the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of their work. I will also be assessing the performance criteria of their absenteeism and the No of days staff are absent in a period of time. Also I will be checking on productivity and the number of staff measured against output. I will be monitoring the retention rates data and to see how long staffs have worked, whether they are temporary or permanent. Company History and Background to problem The company I am investigating is a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc, Citibank International plc. Specifically I will be looking at the Distribution Division of the Global Consumer Bank in the UK. In the year of 2001 Citigroup hailed its position as one of the most successful financial services in the world. It registered double-digit increases across many lines of business, and a 20% returns on equity. Their main objectives are to establish trusted relationships with consumers, corporations, institutions and governments. They operate for both sectors of businesses, private and personal banking. They have corporate banking and this is for business, which generates a lot of money. Citibank is a large corporation and is known as a public limited company, or PLC, meaning that its shares can be floated and then traded on the stock market. Any member of the general public can therefore become an owner of these organisations. I have analysed the annual report for Citigroup in 2001. The figures are very promising and show an increase of 8% in revenue over the previous year. What I am currently basing my project on is the Citibank branches situated in London. The branches are based at Oxford Circus, Strand, Monument and Canary Wharf. I shall be conducting this coursework with the help of Danny Childs, Assistant Vice President of Citibank; he is also in charge of the employees in the London branches. I shall be conducting research within the offices of Citibank to determine the quality of staff behaviour and how they go about customer services. I shall analyse my findings and from the information I discover, I will talk it over with Mr Childs and sort out ways to retain a positive atmosphere in his offices. Performance Indicators I am going to select the appropriate performance to evaluate Citibank’s effectiveness in training. There are two types of performance indicators: A) Qualitative: – In-depth research into the motivations behind the attitudes of the employees through the questionnaires that I have conducted. B) Quantitative: – Pre-set questions on a sample of 13 employees have in order to provide statistically valid data. I wrote this questionnaire and received anonymous and therefore unbiased answers that meet the research objectives. Performance management simply expressed is an approach to managing people, which helps to ensure that individual’s performance goals and capabilities are linked to the goals and plans of the business. When this occurs, business performance goals are met; people know what is expected of them and receive the support they need to develop their capabilities. Modern performance management is based on the principle of ‘objective cascade.’ This means that everyone sees a clear connection between: a) The goals of the entire business. b) The goals of the department. c) How the performance goals of teams and individuals relate to and support business goals. What is the overall approach to performance management in Citibank? Purpose Performance management provides a commitment and fair approach to managing performance of all people within Citibank. Aims: – Clarify performance expectations in relation to what people do and how they go about it. * Address and enhance performance through honest and constructive feedback. * Identify and deliver training and development to meet individual and team capability requirements. Performance indicators that can be used for Citibank can be: – Performance Indicator Purpose Profit Can be measured in quarterly times of the year to see how much money Citibank is bringing in. Staff turnover The amount of staff that has left Citibank can be measured with the staff from last year. Absenteeism Annually compared to provide the number of times employees have taken days off. Research Methodology For my research into Citibank, I will be conducting several different kinds of methods to gather my data. My research will include both primary and secondary data. Therefore, my answers will be accurate and reliable. Primary Research Primary information is the process of gathering information directly from people within your target market, as I will have shown by the time this project is completed. I shall be gathering data from the market by means of conducting an anonymous questionnaire. A questionnaire contains several advantages: – * + Through the questionnaire I can construct my questionnaire to suit the needs of fulfilling my research objectives. * + A questionnaire contains up-to-date answers from the employee’s. * + Through the questionnaire I can also understand the state of mind the worker is in and how he feels about working within Citibank. The questionnaire will be emailed to all of the staff employed by Danny Childs. They will then fill it in and return it back to me. I have decided to use this method because it is honest and will be unbiased. It is reliable and will be of present and true facts. It is also a good idea because it is anonymous and employees won’t feel pressured into giving answers that only are only said for the sake of Danny. I will be handing out questionnaires to 30 people in Danny’s workforce. Secondary Research I will also be using other sources of non-primary findings. They are called secondary research. Secondary research is the process of collecting data that is not new. It can be old evidence from magazines, the Internet or statistics. In this case when the secondary research is collected it will be analysed in accordance to the questionnaires. These sources will be coming from Danny Childs past findings and research data, which he has stored on his laptop. These findings inform me of staff turnover and retention rates of Citibank. I will only be gathering data that is from the past year and which I consider to be useful. Secondary research gives a background analysis of the primary research conducted and I will be able to notice any trends, if any, in the results. After I have had all the results in for both the primary and secondary, I will combine them together and have an accurate answer and accomplish my aim. I will be using a quantitative research method. This asks pre-set questions to the Staff of Citibank. This is called sampling as I am making sure my results are going to be typical of the whole Citibank workforce. My questionnaire will be unbiased and ensure that my objectives are met. I will also research into my answers to check how valid they are. Before starting off my main concerns to do with sampling was that how am I going to choose the correct people for interview (sampling method) and also deciding how large a number to interview (the sample size). There are 4 main sampling methods: Random sample, Quota sample, Stratified sample, and Cluster sample. Random Sample: This is when I would select employees within Citibank and ensure they are all treated equally in the questionnaire selecting process. A successful random sample is one which: 1) Picks names at random from a register process†¦e.g. every 50th name. 2) Send an interviewer to each worker within the offices of Citibank and question him. Quota Sample This is when you’re- selecting interviewees in proportion to their age within the offices. This allows the interviewer (which would be me) to question whoever he sees in the office room, as long as the correct quota is achieved. Stratified Sample Only those with certain characteristics are to be interviewed. Eg: I am going to only interview managers within Citibank worldwide. This means I am interviewing individuals at random. Cluster Sample This is sampling only within a certain area, such as university towns or certain business districts. It is usually used for students such as me who are doing projects on a large scale. Therefore I have decided that the sample that I will be conducting is Cluster Sampling. This is because my sample size was 13 employees and is only referring to the distribution division of Citibank, and not the rest of the company. Analysis Out of the thirty questionnaires that I handed out among the staff, only thirteen questionnaires were sent back to Danny Childs who then forwarded them back to me. The reason not all questionnaires were filled in was that half of them thought that it was Danny himself who had constructed the questionnaire and not me. After receiving the questionnaires I went about analysing each question and breaking them down in terms relating to the aim. All answers that were multiple choice, I ensured that I amalgamated the answers and I created pie charts to visually show my answers. Where questions have a ‘long hand’ answer I will be using ‘verbatims’. This is when I will be lifting relevant comments from the answers. The way I have done this is to pick out key messages and repeated statements within the answers and to then summarise it: – 1) How long have you been at Citibank? What employees wrote A=Less than a year 1 B=1-3 Years 8 C=3-5 years 4 D=More than 5 Years 0 Out of the thirteen who answered, the majority of employees (eight workers) said that they worked between one to three years. Only one employee who filled in the questionnaire has been with Citibank for longer than a year and also had the most negative comments to say about Citibank as an employer. I constructed a Pie Chart to represent the data above: – 2) How would you rate Citibank as an employer? What employees wrote A) Poor 0 B) Below Average 2 C) Average 4 D) Above Average 7 E) Excellent 0 Out of the thirteen that answered, the majority of workers currently employed at Citibank said in their questionnaire that as an employer, they rated Citibank as average. The reasons for this are explained in question three. I have constructed a pie chart to show the data above for question two. 3) Give a Brief reason for your answer to the previous question. Most of the employee’s answered that Citibank provided a â€Å"Good benefit package e.g.: salary, BUPA.† Two employees claimed that Citibank is â€Å"more enjoyable than previous employment.† Four employees were not happy with their employer’s and were not afraid to let it be known. One of those four even went far enough to leave the question unanswered which goes to show how much he values Citibank as an employer. Referring to page 2 of my appendix, an employee said, Managers don’t want to see customers, even if they are available to assist. The worker sees this as a bad thing, yet if he thinks about it he can use this to his advantage. The manager of the branch may believe in Maslow’s theory of management and develops a democratic approach towards his staff. By allowing the staff to think for themselves and make the correct decisions, Danny Childs will only be called in absolute urgency, and by shadowing him for a week I learned and watched the way the workforce was run. 4) When was the last time you attended a training course? The employees have answered this question vaguely and were not afraid to point out that ‘Citibank training is bad’ and that it is ‘so boring’. One employee even said that he ‘cant remember’ the last course he had attended. This goes to show that Citibank need to invest in making their training courses more innovative and enjoyable for their workers in order to keep them motivated. They could ensue team working in the courses meaning placing workers who haven’t worked together before or are not in the same social circle as that particular worker into a group, switching their tasks around and discussing ways of them working more effectively. Team working, managed effectively, can provide employees better quality and more innovative work at a lower cost and at a faster rate. To achieve such improvements in performance employees must be involved. They must have the ability to contribute and feel they are listened to. Greater participation can help a company like Citibank gain a competitive edge. Although this may be expensive, the outcome may be fruitful. The workers may leave the course happier and wanted and therefore work harder and produce more business for Citibank. 5) Overall, what do you think of the training provided at Citibank? What employees wrote A) Poor 2 B) Below Average 1 C) Average 6 D) Above Average 4 E) Excellent 0 Most of the employees at Citibank rated training as only average. I discussed this topic in more detail in question four and discussed the different approaches that could be taken. Even if changes were implemented correctly, I would hope that if I was to ask the same question to staff in six months, the majority might answer that training is Excellent. Below is a pie chart, which I created to show my results from question five: – 6) What keeps you motivated at Citibank? Nine out of the thirteen that answered said that the salary they are on is what keeps them motivated. There were no other factors involved in keeping the staff happy. Three workers said that they survive by motivating themselves and only one claimed that he was there only to do a job. Three things influence the motivation of staff in practice: * The company culture. * Its approach to managing its people * The financial reward systems. Company culture means the accepted set of attitudes and habits within an organisation-its ethos. Every business has its own culture, and Citibank is no different. Within an hour of sitting in the office with Mr Childs, jokes aside I set out to work hard throughout the week. What kept me motivated was that I was working at a top bank and I wanted to please Danny so as not to disappoint him. It was challenging, yet purposeful. Elton Mayo was a motivational theorist who pointed out that the difference in attitude was often to do with the unofficial leader or leaders of the staff concerned. For the majority of the workers, it is the financial reward system that keeps them motivated. Danny explained to me that each of his sales team has a PRP (performance-related pay) scheme to follow. It is a highly attractive system for encouraging staff to work towards the organisation’s objectives. The usual method is: 1) At the end of each month, the individual’s achievement is discussed against the targets set. 2) If they have reached a target or gone above it, they are rewarded with a pay rise, or are given a bonus scheme to work to. 7) Do you feel you get motivation from your managers? This question was answered with much criticism towards the managers. I designed this questionnaire to find out exactly what the staff is thinking and I got what I wanted. This question was answered in a way that it was being critical of the managers and mocking their intelligence. In two of the questionnaires, staff said that the managers give â€Å"support rather than motivation†. Support and motivation are two totally different things. Support is when the manager doesn’t literally do the work for an employee, but rather sets the framework for what is to happen. Motivation is when a manager would encourage his employee’s to do something by means of offering them incentives. For most of the answers given in this question it is plain to see that employee’s don’t feel they get the right motivation that they feel is deserved. Most managers assume they understand human motivation when in practice they have never studied it. As a result they may underestimate the potential within their own staff. Or unthinkingly cause resentments that fester. The process of managing people takes place in every part of every organisation. By contrast a few people would need to know the financial concept of gearing in their working lives. So lack of knowledge of motivational theory is particularly unfortunate and has exceptionally widespread effects. In this case, ignorance leads to managers to ignore motivation altogether. They tell themselves that control and organisation are their only concerns. Other managers may see motivation as important, but fail to understand its subtleties. For these reasons, I can state that there is a case for saying that the concepts of motivation are that of the important factors in running a business. 8) Do you feel you have career prospects at Citibank? Most of the employee’s answered this question with mixed answers. After reading each answer I realised that it was roughly a 50/50 outcome. Some of the employees saw themselves with a future at Citibank, while others thought that they deserved to be elsewhere. A lot of factors can depend on whether or not an employee has a future at Citibank. The outcome I have come to is that the reason the question was not answered properly was because I didn’t ask the question correctly. What I should have I asked was Where do you see yourself in two years time? That way, I will be getting a more detailed answer from the employee and he/she will give me a clear idea of what they think lays in their future. Here is a pie chart to represent the data: – As you can see from the graph, 54% of the staff saw themselves with a future and 46% saw themselves leaving Citibank. 9) Do you feel you are paid a fair wage for your job compared to the banking market place? Out of the thirteen employees, nine answered that they are happy with their salary compared to other banks. Citibank â€Å"on the whole, pays fair wages.† One worker said â€Å"there is always room for improvement† showing that although they are being paid well, more money is always better. Referring back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, if the pay levels were increased, it can be used as an incentive to ensure that they remain at Citibank. Maslow believed everyone has the same needs- all of which can be organised as a hierarchy. When employees earn enough to satisfy these needs, however their motivating power slowly disappears. Maslow then referred to his ‘hierarchy of needs’ in order for them to remain motivated: Self-Actualisation Esteem needs Social needs Safety needs Physical Needs 10) Are you offered any financial incentives such as bonus schemes or awards? Out of the thirteen that answered this question, ten replied that they are offered decent incentives if they work hard enough to earn them. A workforce must be put in place, which provides departments such as operations and marketing with the correct number of appropriately skilled employees to accomplish their targets. For an employee to work well, he must first be able to have a good relationship with his employer. I created a pie chart to give a visual representation of the data I received: – 11) Do you feel Citibank has effective managers within branches? More employees said that managers are effective within the branches, although those that weren’t happy, had a lot to criticise. One worker said that managers â€Å"should be more hands on.† The question that came to my attention is What is an effective manager? There are several explanations to this question, and I am going to explain it by means of McGregor’s Theory X and Y. This comes from Douglas McGregor who identified two styles of management. Theory X managers tend to distrust their employees; they believe they don’t really enjoy their work and that they need to be controlled. In McGregor’s own words, many managers believe â€Å"The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.† This theory is not about workers, but he is actually talking about the managers themselves. Theory X in other words is how managers view their workforce. On the other hand, Theory Y managers are more likely to involve employees in decisions and give them greater responsibility. The managerial assumptions identified by McGregor X and Y are: * â€Å"The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in the solution of organisational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.† * â€Å"The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek responsibility.† * â€Å"Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.† It is clear that Danny is a theory Y manager in some aspects as he is inclined to adopt a democratic leadership style. Their style is to delegate authority to meet specific objectives. Theory X style is to be self-fulfilling. Lazy people are obviously going to produce less output then a lively person. The way to make that lazy person lively is to offer him an incentive, which will motivate him to work harder. 12) Would you recommend your friends to work for Citibank? Eight employees said that they’d recommend friends to work for Citibank, one of them saying what I needed to read, â€Å"Higher starting salary compared to High Street Banks.† The answers show that it was mixed opinions and there could be several reasons. Workers may not want to mix business with pleasure and therefore for friends to be around them in the office, their performance can severely decrease. 13) What, in your view, could Citibank do to improve your working environment? The employees answered and voiced their opinions to make the working environment of Citibank better. The question was answered in detail and I was happy with the result. Appendices Below you will find that I have broken down my questionnaire into an easier way to understand. I completed this before I began my analysis and this appendix can be referred back to as a backup for my analysis at anytime: Question 1- How long have you been at Citibank? A) Less than a year B) 1-3 Years C) 3-5 Years D) More than 5 Years

The Discovery of King Tuts Tomb

British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter along with his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, spent many years and a lot of money searching for a tomb in Egypts Valley of the Kings that they werent sure still existed. But on November 4, 1922, they found it. Carter had discovered not just an unknown ancient Egyptian tomb, but one that had lain nearly undisturbed for over 3,000 years. What lay within King Tuts tomb astounded the world. Carter and Carnarvon Carter had worked in Egypt for 31 years before he found King Tuts tomb. He had begun his career in Egypt at age 17, using his artistic talents to copy wall scenes and inscriptions. Eight years later (in 1899), Carter was appointed the Inspector-General of Monuments in Upper Egypt. In 1905, Carter resigned from this job and in 1907, went to work for Lord Carnarvon. George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, loved to race around in the newly invented automobile. But an auto accident in 1901 left him in ill health. Vulnerable to the damp English winter, Lord Carnarvon began spending winters in Egypt in 1903. To pass the time, he took up archaeology as a hobby. Turning up nothing but a mummified cat (still in its coffin) his first season, Lord Carnarvon decided to hire someone knowledgeable for the succeeding seasons. For this, he hired Howard Carter. The Long Search After several relatively successful seasons working together, World War I brought a near halt to their work in Egypt. Yet, by the fall of 1917, Carter and Lord Carnarvon began excavating in earnest in the Valley of the Kings. Carter stated that there were several pieces of evidence already found—a faience cup, a piece of gold foil, and a cache of funerary items which all bore the name of Tutankhamun—that convinced him that the tomb of King Tut was still to be found. Carter also believed that the locations of these items pointed to a specific area where they might find King Tutankhamuns tomb. Carter was determined to systematically search this area by excavating down to the bedrock. Besides some ancient workmens huts at the foot of the tomb of Rameses VI and 13 calcite jars at the entrance to the tomb of Merenptah, Carter did not have much to show after five years of excavating in the Valley of the Kings. Thus, Lord Carnarvon decided to stop the search. After a discussion with Carter, Carnarvon relented and agreed to one last season. One Final Season By November 1, 1922, Carter began his final season working in the Valley of the Kings by having his workers expose the ancient workmens huts at the base of the tomb of Rameses VI. After exposing and documenting the huts, Carter and his workmen began to excavate the ground beneath them. By the fourth day of work, they had found something—a step that had been cut into the rock. Steps Work feverishly continued on the afternoon of November 4 through the following morning. By late afternoon on November 5, 12 stairs leading down were revealed; and in front of them, stood the upper portion of a blocked entrance. Carter searched the plastered door for a name. But of the seals that could be read, he found only the impressions of the royal necropolis. Carter was extremely excited, writing: The design was certainly of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Could it be the tomb of a noble buried here by royal consent? Was it a royal cache, a hiding-place to which a mummy and its equipment had been removed for safety? Or was it actually the tomb of the king for whom I had spent so many years in search? Telling Carnarvon To protect the find, Carter had his workmen fill in the stairs, covering them so that none were showing. While several of Carters most trusted workmen stood guard, Carter left to make preparations. The first of which was contacting Lord Carnarvon in England to share the news of the find. On November 6, two days after finding the first step, Carter sent a cable: At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations. The Sealed Door It was nearly three weeks after finding the first step that Carter was able to proceed. On November 23, Lord Carnarvon and his daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, arrived in Luxor. The following day, the workers had again cleared the staircase, now exposing all 16 of its steps and the full face of the sealed doorway. Now Carter found what he could not see before since the bottom of the doorway had still been covered with rubble: There were several seals on the bottom of the door with Tutankhamuns name on them. Now that the door was fully exposed, they noticed that the upper left of the doorway had been broken through, presumably by tomb robbers, and resealed. The tomb was not intact, yet the fact that the tomb had been resealed showed that the tomb had not been emptied. The Passageway On the morning of November 25, the sealed doorway was photographed and the seals noted. Then the door was removed. A passageway emerged from the darkness, filled to the top with limestone chips. Upon closer examination, Carter could tell that tomb robbers had dug a hole through the upper left section of the passageway. (The hole had been refilled in antiquity with larger, darker rocks than used for the rest of the fill.) This meant that the tomb had probably been raided twice in antiquity. The first time was within a few years of the kings burial and before there was a sealed door and fill in the passageway. (Scattered objects were found under the fill.) The second time, the robbers had to dig through the fill and could escape only with smaller items. By the following afternoon, the fill along the 26-foot-long passageway had been cleared away to expose another sealed door, almost identical to the first. Again, there were signs that a hole had been made in the doorway and resealed. Everywhere the Glint of Gold Tension mounted. If anything was left inside, it would be a discovery of a lifetime for Carter. If the tomb was relatively intact, it would be something the world had never seen. Carter wrote: With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left-hand corner. Darkness and blank space, as far as an iron testing-rod could reach, showed that whatever lay beyond was empty, and not filled like the passage we had just cleared. Candle tests were applied as a precaution against possible foul gases, and then, widening the hold a little, I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment—an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by—I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, Can you see anything? it was all I could do to get out the words, Yes, wonderful things. The next morning, the plastered door was photographed and the seals documented. Then the door came down, revealing the Antechamber. The wall opposite the entrance wall was piled nearly to the ceiling with boxes, chairs, couches, and so much more—most of them gold—in organized chaos. On the right wall stood two life-size statues of the king, facing each other as if to protect the sealed entrance that was between them. This sealed door also showed signs of being broken into and resealed, but this time the robbers had entered in the bottom middle of the door. To the left of the door from the passageway lay a tangle of parts from several dismantled chariots. As Carter and the others spent time looking at the room and its contents, they noticed another sealed door behind the couches on the far wall. This sealed door also had a hole in it, but unlike the others, the hole had not been resealed. Carefully, they crawled under the couch and shone their light. The Annexe In this room (later called the Annexe), everything was in disarray. Carter theorized that officials had attempted to straighten up the Antechamber after the robbers had plundered, but they had made no attempt to straighten the Annexe. He wrote: I think the discovery of this second chamber, with its crowded contents, had a somewhat sobering effect on us. Excitement had gripped us hitherto, and given us no pause for thought, but now for the first time we began to realize what a prodigious task we had in front of us, and what a responsibility it entailed. This was no ordinary find, to be disposed of in a normal seasons work; nor was there any precedent to show us how to handle it. The thing was outside all experience, bewildering, and for the moment it seemed as though there were more to be done than any human agency could accomplish. Documenting and Preserving the Artifacts Before the entrance between the two statues in the Antechamber could be opened, the items in the Antechamber needed to be removed or risk damage to them from flying debris, dust, and movement. Documentation and preservation of each item was a monumental task. Carter realized that this project was larger than he could handle alone, thus he asked for and received help from a large number of specialists. To begin the clearing process, each item was photographed in situ, both with an assigned number and without. Then, a sketch and description of each item were made on correspondingly numbered record cards. Next, the item was noted on a ground plan of the tomb (only for the Antechamber). Carter and his team had to be extremely careful when attempting to remove any of the objects. Since many of the items were in extremely delicate states (such as beaded sandals in which the threading had disintegrated, leaving only beads held together by 3,000 years of habit), many items needed immediate treatment, such as a celluloid spray, to keep the items intact for removal. Moving the items also proved a challenge. Carter wrote of it, Clearing the objects from the Antechamber was like playing a gigantic game of spillikins. So crowded were they that it was a matter of extreme difficulty to move one without running serious risk of damaging others, and in some cases they were so inextricably tangled that an elaborate system of props and supports had to be devised to hold one object or group of objects in place while another was being removed. At such times life was a nightmare. When an item was successfully removed, it was placed upon a stretcher and gauze and other bandages were wrapped around the item to protect it for removal. Once a number of stretchers were filled, a team of people would carefully pick them up and move them out of the tomb. As soon as they exited the tomb with the stretchers, they were greeted by hundreds of tourists and reporters who waited for them at the top. Since word had spread quickly around the world about the tomb, the popularity of the site was excessive. Every time someone came out of the tomb, cameras would go off. The trail of stretchers was taken to the conservation laboratory, located at some distance away in the tomb of Seti II. Carter had appropriated this tomb to serve as a conservation laboratory, photographic studio, carpenters shop (to make the boxes needed to ship the objects), and a storeroom. Carter allotted tomb No. 55 as a darkroom. The items, after conservation and documentation, were very carefully packed into crates and sent by rail to Cairo. It took Carter and his team seven weeks to clear the Antechamber. On Feb. 17, 1923, they began dismantling the sealed door between the statues. The Burial Chamber The inside of the Burial Chamber was almost completely filled with a large shrine over 16 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 9 feet tall. The walls of the shrine were made of gilded wood inlaid with brilliant blue porcelain. Unlike the rest of the tomb, upon which the walls had been left as rough-cut rock (unsmoothed and unplastered), the walls of the Burial Chamber (excluding the ceiling) were covered with gypsum plaster and painted yellow. Funeral scenes were painted on these yellow walls. On the ground around the shrine were a number of items, including portions of two broken necklaces, which looked as if they had been dropped by robbers, and magic oars to ferry the kings barque [boat] across the waters of the Nether World. To take apart and examine the shrine, Carter had to first demolish the partition wall between the Antechamber and the Burial Chamber. Still, there was not much room between the three remaining walls and the shrine. As Carter and his team worked to disassemble the shrine they found that this was merely the outer shrine, with four shrines in total. Each section of the shrines weighed up to half a ton. In the small confines of the Burial Chamber, work was difficult and uncomfortable. When the fourth shrine was disassembled, the kings sarcophagus was revealed. The sarcophagus was yellow and made out of a single block of quartzite. The lid did not match the rest of the sarcophagus and had been cracked in the middle during antiquity (an attempt had been made to cover the crack by filling it with gypsum).   When the heavy lid was lifted, a gilded wooden coffin was revealed. The coffin was in a distinctly human shape and was 7 feet 4 inches long. Opening the Coffin A year and a half later, they were ready to lift the lid of the coffin. Conservation work of other objects already removed from the tomb had taken precedence. Thus, the anticipation of what lay beneath was extreme. Inside, they found another, smaller coffin. The lifting of the lid of the second coffin revealed a third one, made entirely of gold. On top of this third, and final, coffin was a dark material that had once been liquid and poured over the coffin from the hands to the ankles. The liquid had hardened over the years and firmly stuck the third coffin to the bottom of the second. The thick residue had to be removed with heat and hammering. Then the lid of the third coffin was raised. At last, the royal mummy of Tutankhamun was revealed. It had been over 3,300 years since a human being had seen the kings remains. This was the first royal Egyptian mummy that had been found untouched since his burial. Carter and the others hoped King Tutankhamuns mummy would reveal a large amount of knowledge about ancient Egyptian burial customs. Though it was still an unprecedented find, Carter and his team were dismayed to learn that the liquid poured on the mummy had done a great deal of damage. The linen wrappings of the mummy could not be unwrapped as hoped, but instead had to be removed in large chunks.   Many of the items found within the wrappings had also been damaged, and some were almost completely disintegrated. Carter and his team found over 150 items on the mummy—almost all of them gold—including amulets, bracelets, collars, rings, and daggers. The autopsy on the mummy found that Tutankhamun had been about 5 feet 5 1/8 inches tall and had died around age 18. Certain evidence also attributed Tutankhamuns death to murder. The Treasury On the right wall of the Burial Chamber was an entrance into a storeroom, now known as the Treasury. The Treasury, like the Antechamber, was filled with items including many boxes and model boats. Most notable in this room was the large gilded canopic shrine. Inside the gilded shrine was the canopic chest made out of a single block of calcite. Inside the canopic chest were the four  canopic jars, each in the shape of an Egyptian coffin and elaborately decorated, holding the pharaohs embalmed organs: liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines. Also discovered in the Treasury were two small coffins found in a simple, undecorated wooden box. Inside these two coffins were the  mummies  of two premature fetuses. It is hypothesized that these were Tutankhamuns children. (Tutankhamun is not known to have had any surviving children.) World Famous Discovery The discovery of King Tuts tomb in November 1922 created an obsession around the world. Daily updates of the find were demanded. Masses of mail and telegrams deluged Carter and his associates. Hundreds of tourists waited outside the tomb for a peek. Hundreds more people tried to use their influential friends and acquaintances to get a tour of the tomb, which caused a great hindrance to work in the tomb and endangered the artifacts.  Ancient Egyptian  style clothes quickly hit the markets and appeared in fashion magazines. Even architecture was affected when Egyptian designs were copied into modern buildings. The Curse The rumors and excitement over the discovery became especially acute when Lord Carnarvon became suddenly ill from an infected mosquito bite on his cheek (he had accidentally aggravated it while shaving). On April 5, 1923, just a week after the bite, Lord Carnarvon died. Carnarvons death gave fuel to the idea that there was a curse associated with King Tuts tomb.   Immortality Through Fame In all, it took Carter and his colleagues 10 years to document and clear out Tutankhamuns tomb. After Carter completed his work at the tomb in 1932, he began to write a six-volume definitive work, A Report Upon the Tomb of Tut ankh Amun. Carter died before he was able to finish, passing away at his home Kensington, London, on March 2, 1939. The mysteries of the young pharaohs tomb live on:  As recently as  March 2016,  radar scans  indicated that there may yet be hidden chambers not yet opened within King Tuts tomb. Ironically,  Tutankhamun, whose obscurity during his own time allowed his tomb to be forgotten, has now become one of the most well-known pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Having traveled around the world as part of an exhibit, King Tuts body once again rests in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Sources Carter, Howard.  The Tomb of Tutankhamen. E.P. Dutton, 1972.Frayling, Christopher.  The Face of Tutankhamun. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1992.Reeves, Nicholas. The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1990.