Irregular Webcomic! #4522

Howard Carter has been mentioned before in these annotations. As stated there, he's best known for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun, in the Valley of the Kings.

His archaeological dig found the tomb in 1922. Tutankhamun's tomb is justifiably the most famous Ancient Egyptian tomb ever discovered, for the fact that it is the only one ever found which had not been extensively looted prior to its discovery by modern archaeologists. It is thus the only Egyptian tomb for which we have a more-or-less full inventory of contents, and for which the artefacts have been made available for historical study and viewing by the public.

Carter found the entrance to the tomb on 4 November, 1922. He sent a cable to his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, in England, who set out for Egypt at once, arriving on 23 November. On the 24th, with Carnarvon in attendance, Carter excavated the exterior staircase of the tomb leading to the sealed door. This revealed a cartouche indicating the name of Tutankhamun.

On the 26th of November, Carter breached the door, chiseling a small hole to look through. He poked a candle inside and looked around.

Carnarvon asked, "Can you see anything?"

Carter replied, "Yes. Wonderful things!"

Wonderful things indeed. Over 5000 objects were found inside the tomb, including Tutankhamun's inner sarcophagus, which was made from 110 kilograms of solid gold. Many of the other objects were either made of gold, gilded with gold, and/or decorated with gemstones. The total mass of gold and jewellery in the tomb comes to in incredible 1200 kilograms.

Carter's response is one of the most famous lines—if not the most famous—in all archaeology. It's fairly certain that he actually uttered it as described, since it's documented in accounts written soon afterwards.