CLASS-11

HORNBILL

DISCOVERING TUT-THE SAGA CONTINUES-A.R WILLIAMS

Prepared and narrated byPreeti Shrivastava

PGT EnglishKendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

DISCOVERING TUT- THE SAGA CONTINUES

- A.R Williams

GIST

1. King Tut’s death a mystery

King Tut became an emperor when he was only ateenager.

He died also as a teenager.

But the reasons of his death are unknown till date.

Because of this, his body is examined time and again.

2. Damage caused by Howard Carter

Howard Carter wanted to know more about King Tut andhis sudden demise.

He took out his coffin and kept it open under the blazingheat of the sun.

His intention [aim] was to melt the resins which gluedthe body with the coffin.

But when he could not do so, he tried to chisel out bodyparts and caused grave damage to the body.

3. Things King Tut was buried with.

King Tut was buried in a three nested coffin.

He was buried along with gold artefacts, necklace, bracelet, board game, razor,linen undergarments and cases of food and wine.

Egyptians believed in life after death.

They believed that the king would need everything even after his death.

4. King Tut’s Past

After Amenhotep III, Amenhotep IV came .

Amenhotep IV stopped worship of Amun God.

He started worship of Aten God.

He changed his name to Akhenaten.

He changed the capital from Thebes to Amarna.

He closed temples of Amun God and smashed idols of Amun God.

About the Characters

King Tut: The last heir of a powerful family thathad ruled Egypt and its empire for centuries. Hispreserved body was the first to be scanned.

Howard Carter: The British archaeologist who in1922 discovered King Tut’s tomb. His searchcaused great damage to the King’s preserved body.

Zahi Hawass: The Secretary General of Egypt’sSupreme Council of Antiquities. He scanned KingTut’s mummy for an accurate forensicreconstruction.

Amenhotep III: King Tut’s father or grandfather,was 'a powerful ruler who ruled for almost fourdecades.

Amenhotep IV: He promoted the worship of Atenand changed his name to Akhenaten. He outragedthe country by attacking Amun, a major God, bysmashing his images and closing his temples.

CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS

Tutankhamun or King Tut died as a teenage pharaoh and was buriedladen with gold. He was the last king of a powerful family that ruledEgypt for centuries.

On 5th January, 2005 his mummy was brought out of his tomb and aCT scan was done to ascertain the reason of his death.

Multitudes of tourists from around the world came to visit the tombto pay their respects.

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council ofAntiquities, said that the mummy was in a very bad conditionbecause of what Carter did to it.

Howard Carter, the British archaeologist, discovered king Tut’s tombin 1922 and investigated its contents.

Carter faced difficulty in extracting the mummy out of the coffin. Theritual resins had hardened, resulting in cementing King Tut’smummy to the bottom of his gold coffin.

Howard Carter tried to loosen the resins using the sun, but in vain.His men thus removed the mummy’s head and cut off nearly everymajor joint before reassembling it.

In 1968, an anatomy professor X-rayed the mummy and revealed a startling fact.He claimed that the breast bone and the front ribs of the mummy were missing.

Amenhotep III — King Tut’s father or grandfather – was a powerful king. He wassucceeded by Amenhotep IV, who promoted the worship of Aten, the sun disk, andchanged his name to Akhenaten. He made some other changes.

King Tut’s mummy was one of the first mummies to be scanned. The CT scanshowed a grey head, neck vertebrae, a hand, several images of the rib cage and asection of the skull.

Zahi Hawass was relieved to find that nothing had gone seriously wrong with themummy.

After their observations, when they left, the wind had stopped and there wascomplete silence. Just above the entrance to King Tut’s tomb stood Orion, theconstellation watching over the boy king.

Short Answer Type Questions:Q1. Who was Howard Carter? What was his discovery?

Ans. Howard Carter was a British archaeologist. After years of searching he discovered KingTut’s tomb in 1922 over 3300 years after his death. Tut died at the age of 19 but his death wasa mystery for all. He was the last ruler of his powerful family that ruled Egypt for centuries.People believed that the king died in mysterious circumstances and his death may involve everypossibility of murder.

Q2. Why did King Tut’s mummy have to undergo CT scan?

Ans. The mummy of King Tut has earned worldwide fame for the riches it was buried with.Further there arose a great controversy about the manner of his death and his age at the timeof death. Keeping in the view this controversy, King Tut’s body was ordered to be scanned toexamine the delayed medical mysteries about his life and death.

Q3. In 1968 what was the startling fact revealed by a professor of anatomy aboutking Tut?

Ans. In 1968, more than 40 years after Carter’s discovery of king Tut’s tomb, a professor ofanatomy X-rayed Tut’s mummy. He revealed an astonishing fact that beneath the resin thatlayers his chest, his breast-bone and front ribs are missing. It startled everyone.

Q4. What did the tourists do at that time?

Ans. The tourists from around the world queued up as usual all afternoon into the narrowedrock-cut tomb. They lined up to pay their homage to king Tut. They watched the murals on thewalls of the burial chamber. Some visitors read from guidebook. Others stood silently peering atTut’s gilded face.

Q5. Who did point out that the mummy was in a bad condition? Who was heldresponsible for it?

Ans. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, bent over themummy and watched it very carefully. Then he said the mummy is in a very bad conditionbecause of what Carter did in the 1920s. It was in 1922, Carter discovered king Tut’s tomb.

Q6. Why was king Tut’s demise a big event, even by royal standards?

Ans. King Tut’s death was of course a big event. Even by royal standards he was the last rulerin his family line. His funeral was the death bell of a dynasty that ruled in Egypt for centuries.The big event is because of the fact that he died unexpectedly at young age. The particulars ofhis passing and its aftermath are not clear.

Q7. Why did some people think the King Tut’s untimely death as the Pharaoh’scurse?

Ans. After king Akhenaten’s death a mysterious ruler became the king for a short whileand died. Then a very young Tutankhaten took the throne. He changed his name toTutankhamun, “Living image of Amun.” He restored the worship of Amun whose imageswere broken and temples closed by the Pharaoh. Thus king Tut disturbed the Pharaoh.Akhenaten and his curse – death Akhenaten had befallen on Tut causing his untimelydeath in his late teens.

Q8. What problem did Carter face when he reached the mummy of King Tut? Howdid he find a way out?

Ans: When Carter alongwith his men were working at the tomb of King Tut, they foundthat the ritual resins had hardened. They had cemented and the mummy of King Tut couldnot be taken out. The solidified material could be removed through chisels. The mummywas cut free. His men removed Tut’s head and severed every major joint. Then they werekept in a box on a layer of sand. He defended his act lest the mummy should not fall intothe hands of thieves for getting gold.

Q9. List some adornments on Tut’s body. Why had the adornments been buriedalong with the body?

Ans. The mummy of Tut was decorated with precious collars, inlaid necklaces, rings,bracelets, amulets and a ceremonial apron. There were sandals, sheaths for fingers andtoes and the inner golden coffin and mask. All of them were made of pure gold. Accordingto the beliefs it was thought that they could take their riches with them to the greatbeyond.

Q10. How did Carter defend his action of cutting the mummy free?

Ans. Carter in his defence wrote later that if he hadn’t cut the mummy free, thieves wouldhave avoided the guards and ripped it apart to remove all the gold. The mummy had beenkept with a lot of wealth, in the form of gold ornaments, etc.

Q11. How can C.T scan prove more effective than X-Rays?

Ans. C.T scan can prove more effective than X-Rays because it produces hundreds of X-Rays in cross-section which are put together like slices of bread to create a threedimensional virtual body.

Q12. Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned –in death, as in life…”

Ans. It means that the mummy of King tut was the first one ever to be scanned. Thepurpose was to reveal the mysteries relating to the period when he was alive. Secondly, italso helped find out the cause of his death in mysterious circumstances. The deathoccurred only nine years after his taking the throne.

Q13. List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as Wacky.

Ans. Akhenaten was a crazy and rash ruler. He attacked Amun – a major God, broke hisstatues and closed his temples. He even shifted the religious capital from the oddity ofThebes to the new city of Amarna.

Q14. What did the CT scan of Tut’s mummy reveal?

Ans. CT scanning gave surprising as well as fascinating images of Tut’s body. The imageof a gray head appeared on the computer screen. Neck bones appeared quite clearly.Other images of Tut’s body appeared on the screen. They included a hand and severalviews of rib-cage and the skull.

Q15. “Curse of the Pharaoh”, joked a guard nervously. What is the curse andwhy did the guard say so?

Ans. The curse of the Pharaoh – death or misfortune falling upon those who disturbedhim, is considered to be true. The fans of the CT scan machine got stuck with the sanddust and stopped working during scanning of the mummy. Then the guard jokingly saidthat it was the curse of the Pharaoh. Later another pair of white plastic fans werearranged which worked well enough.

DISCOVERING TUT- THE SAGA CONTINUES -A. R WILLIAMS

Heir – Inheritor, successor

Laden – loaded

Speculated- form a theory without evidence

Tomb- an enclosure to bury the dead

Forensic Reconstruction – the process of recreating the face of an individual

Pharaoh- a ruler in ancient Egypt

Stirred – move or cause to move slightly

Ghostly – eerie and unnatural; unreal

Resting place- here, the grave

Cemetery- a large burial ground

Dark-bellied – dark in colour

Scudded across – moving quickly; it refers to the movement of the dark-bellied clouds

Veiling – to cover something

Casket- a small ornamental box or chest for holding jewels, letters, or other valued objects.

Casket grey – It means that the grey clouds were like a grey coloured casket which contained the stars. The stars are like

jewels which are kept in a casket.

Glided – quite, continuous motion

Probe – to investigate, find out

Lingering – long-lasting

Descended – moved or gathered

Cramped – very small to fit into

Rock-cut - made in a rock by cutting it

Gazed – to look in surprise or in admiration

Murals – a painting or other artwork executed directly on the wall

Gilded – covered with a thin sheet or coating of gold

Striking- prominent

Whisper- to speak in a low voice

Pondering – think about something carefully

Futile – pointless; incapable of producing the result of something

Hastily – fast; swiftly

Ransacked – raid; go through a place to steal or damage something

Antiquity – age, oldness

Resurrection – restoration to life

Funerary Treasures – the valuable things with which the king was buried

three nested coffin- three coffins placed one in another in order of decreasing size. The innermost coffin houses the body of

the deceased.

Shroud – a length of cloth in which a dead person is wrapped

Adorned – decorated

Garlands of willow – a wreath of flowers and leaves

Mummy- a body of a human being or animal that has been ceremonially preserved by removal of the internal organs,

treatment with resin, and wrapping in bandages.

Ritual - here, the resins used in the ceremony of mummification

Resins – a sticky flammable substance that is insoluble in water

Legitimate - reasonable

Blazing – very hot

Budged – moved or shifted; a slight movement

Chiselled away – to cut something with a chisel

Circumvented – find a way around; thieves would have found a way to tackle the guards and remove the gold from the tomb

Amulet - an ornament or small piece of jewellery thought to give protection against evil, danger, or disease.

Apron - a protective garment worn over the front of one's clothes and tied at the back.

Sheaths – a close-fitting cover

Iconic - something or someone who is a symbol or it represents some other thing

Adornments – ornaments

Concealed- hid

Intervening – occur in the time between events

Intriguing – to arouse one’s curiosity

Startling – unexpected or surprising

Demise - death

Aftermath – after-effects of an unpleasant event

Wacky –amusing in a slightly odd way

Eerie detail – strange image of Tut’s head as visible with the help of CT scan

Forensics – the application of the scientific method to investigate a crime

Anatomy – the branch of science which deals with the bodily structure of humans, animals or other living beings

Burial – burying the dead

Shrine – holy place

Pallbearers – a person who helps to escort a coffin at a funeral

Swirling – to spin or twist

Sprinted – ran at a high speed

stood Orion — the constellation that the ancient Egyptians knew as the soul of Osiris, the god of the afterlife — watching over

the boy king.

Astonishing – amazing