Theodore Montgomery Davis was born in Springfield, New York in 1838. After a career in the law and business, he moved to Newport, Rhode Island in 1882 where he built a mansion known as "The Reef" on Ocean Avenue, on property which is now Brenton Point State Park. Although married, Davis had a live-in mistress, Emma Andrews, from 1887 until his death. Andrews was the cousin of his wife Annie. He spent his winters in Europe and on digs in Egypt. In the winter of 1915 he did not go to Egypt for health reasons and instead rented the Florida home of William Jennings Bryan, then Secretary of State. He died there in late February of that year, leaving the Davis Madonna to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Excavations
Starting in 1902 Davis acted as private sponsor for the Antiquities Service. Because of the success of this first season, which included the discovery of KV45 and a box containing leather loincloths from above KV36, this sponsorship was renewed each year until 1905. During this period excavations were conducted in his name by the inspector-general of antiquities for Upper Egypt. In 1905 Arthur Weigall, as new inspector-general, persuaded Davis to sign a new concession for work in the Valley and to employ his own archaeologist. Under these new conditions excavations were conducted by Edward R. Ayrton, E. Harold Jones and Harry Burton. By 1913, Davis was convinced that either KV 54, the Tutankhamunembalming cache, or KV 57, Horemheb's tomb, were in fact the tomb of King Tutankhamun. In the 1912 site report, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou, which was about the finds from the 1908 season, he stated “I fear the Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted.” The concession then passed on to Lord Carnarvon. Although excavation commenced during the 1914-1915 season, the concession was not formally signed until 1915. The excavations carried out under Davis's sponsorship are among the most important ever undertaken in the valley: in the course of 12 years about 30 tombs were discovered and/or cleared in his name, the best known among them are KV46, KV55, KV57 and KV54. With Carter's discovery of KV62, Tutankhamun's tomb, in 1922 Davis's opinion that the "valley had been exhausted", was proved wrong. Burton later recalled that when Davis terminated his last excavation in the valley, out of fear of undercutting nearby tombs and pathways, he was only two metres away from discovering the entrance to KV62. Davis's excavations produced a number of pieces for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other American museums, he frequently bought pieces from Luxor dealer Muhammad Mohassib.
Davis was portrayed by William Hope in the 2005 BBC docudrama Egypt. Davis was portrayed by Anthony Higgins in the 2016 miniseries Tutankhamun. Davis and the tomb of Queen Tiyi also feature prominently in "The Ape Who Guards the Balance" by Elizabeth Peters, where he is portrayed as a clumsy dilettante more interested in discovering tombs than excavating them and protecting the contents.
