Summary & Question-answers of The Chapter : 3- Discovering Tut : the Saga Continues

Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues Summary in English

Tutankhamun was the last leader of the great Pharaoh Dynasty. He was young when he died. According to some people, his death was a murder. In the year 1922, his tomb was exposed by Howard Carter, an Archaeologist. After 80 years, he was taken for the CT scan to solve the mystery of his life and death through a forensic reconstruction.

His father or grandfather, Amenhotep III, was a very powerful Pharaoh ruler over a period of 40 years. Moreover, his son, Amenhotep IV, succeeded him and initiated the strangest period in the history of Egypt. His name changed to Akhenaten which means servant of Athens. He changed the religious capital from Thebes to Amarna. Later he attacked Amun, a god, ruined his images and shut his temples. Another mysterious ruler thrived him who died very soon. Tutankhamun sat on the power and ruled for 9 years.

When Tut’s mummified body was found, he had lots of gold and wealth. Carter got him after so many years. After conducting the research on the treasures, he planned to examine his 3 nested boxes. Many parts of the treasure in the tomb were already misplaced.

His tomb was found rock-cut, 26 feet under the ground, which also had some wall paintings. It reveals that he was suppressed in the months of March or April. One of the coffin put Carter into trouble. The gums used to paste Tut to the lowest of the solid gold. Coffin was toughening enough that made it impossible to displace. He put the box in the sun for numerous hours so that the resins lose up but that didn’t work.

At last, he removed the adhesive with the chisel and hammer. Carter sensed he didn’t have any other choice than cutting the mummy from limb to limb, thieves would have robbed the gold and the treasures. His men first removed the head of the mummy, then they cut off each and every joint. After the process of removing all the body parts, they placed it on the layer of sand. They kept the parts in a wooden box and placed it at the original place.

Later, in January 2009, the body was taken for a CT scan which takes hundreds of X-Rays and generates a 3D image. That night after the scan, the workmen passed his body from the tomb into a box. They went through the ramp and stairs and lifted the body on a hydraulic trailer that was holding the scanner. The scanner suddenly stopped working and the process of the CT scan stopped. After the use of a pair of spare fans, the scan was finally completed. After 3 hours, they transferred his body back to his tomb where his body is now resting in peace.

Question 1.

Give reasons for the following :
(i) King Tut’s body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny.
(ii) Howard Carter’s investigation was resented.
(iii) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king’s remain.
(iv) Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures.
(v) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
Answer:
(i) King Tut of Egypt was merely a teenager when he died. He belonged to a very powerful family that had ruled Egypt and its empire for centuries. He was the last heir his family. King Tut’s body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny to know more about his life and the manner in which he died. Howard Carter, a British archaeologist discoverd Tut’s tomb in 1922.

Since then the modem world has speculated about what happened to him. Even the possibility of his murder is not ruled out. The repeated scrutiny will after new clues about his life and death. That is why his dead body was bronght under CT scanner to probe medical mysteries about him.

(ii) Haward Carter, the British archaeologist had discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922. Carter’s investigation was resented because the mummy was in very bad condition due to what he did to it while investigating. This is what Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, felt. To separate Tut from his adomaments, Carter’s men removed the mummy’ head and severed nearly every major joint.

(iii) Howard Carter had discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922 after years of futile search¬ing. When he finally reached the mummy, he ran into trouble. The ritual resins had hardened, cementing Tut to the botton of his solid gold coffin. As Carter wrote later, no amount of legitimate force could move the resins. He set the mummy outside in blazing sunshine that heated it to 149 degrees Fahrenheit. But it had no affect at all. That is why the consolidated material or the solidified resins had to chisel away to raise the king’s remains.

(iv) Tut’s body was buried alongwith gilded treasures : precious collars, inlaid necklaces and bracelets, rings, amulets, a ceremonial apron, sandals, sheaths for his fingers and toes, inner coffin and mask—all of pure gold. In Tut’s time the royals were fabulously wealthy. They thought or hoped that they could take their riches with them. That is why Tut’s body was buried alongwith gilded treasures

(v) The boy King Tut’s original name was Tutankhaten. When a very young Tutankhaten took the throne, he soon changed his name to Tutankhamun, which means the “living image of Amun”, and oversaw a restoration of the old ways.

Question 2.
(i) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as ‘wacky’.
Answer:
The new pharoah Amenhotep IV promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk. That is why he changed his name to Akhenaten, or “servant of the Aten”. He moved the religious capital from the old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, known as Amama.

He also shocked the country by attacking Amun a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples. Calling it “a horrfic time,” Ray Johnson, director of the university of Chicago’s research center in Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes said “and then Akhenaten went a little wacky”. Due to his unusual and strong acts, Ray Johnson calls him as crazy.

(ii) What were the results of the CT scan ?
Answer:
The dead body of the boy King Tut had undergone a CT (computed tomography) scan that offers new clues about his life and death. It also provides precise data for an accurate reconstruction of the boyish pharaoh. CT scan was performed at 6 p.m. an January 5, 2005.

Consequently, a technician pulled up astomishing images of Tut on a computer screen. A grey head took shape from a scattering of pixels, and the technician spun and tilted it in every direction. Similarly neck vertebrae appeared very clearly. Other images revealed a hand, several views of the rib cage, and a transaction of the skull. The mummy was scanned by CT machine from head to toe, creating 1700 digital X-ray images.

(iii) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.
Answer:
Much more than an X-ray, a CT (Computed tomography) scan provides precise data for an accurate forensic analysis. Thus now diagnastic imaging can be done with computed tomography, or CT, by which hundreds of X-rays in cross section are put together like slices of bread to create three dimensional virtual body.

Thus the mummy of the King Tut was scanned by a CT scanner from head to toe, creating 1700 digital X-ray images in cross section. Tut’s head; scanned 0.62 millimeter slices to register its intricate structures, takes on eerie detail in the resulting image. Tut’s entire body was similarly recorded. Then a team of specialists in radiology, forensics, and anatomy began to probe the secrets about him.

(iv) Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned in death, as in life ”
Answer:
King Tut reigned for about nine years and then he died unexpectedly. As a boy king who was famous and his life being so short, he was scrutinized closely in his life. King Tut is also one of the first mummies to be scanned with a portable CT machine. That is why the author says that King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned in life on in death.