Discovering Tut The Saga Continues
- A.R Williams
1.What generated the interest of the world in King Tut?
King Tut was just a teenager when he died. He was the last heir of a powerful family that
had ruled Egypt and its empire for centuries. Since the discovery of his tomb in 1922,
the modem world wondered about what happened to him and wondered if he could
have been murdered.
2.How did nature seem to echo the unnatural happening?
As King Tut was taken from his resting place in the ancient Egyptian cemetery,
dark-bellied clouds that had scudded across the desert sky all day, veiled the stars in
grey. It seemed that the wind was angry and had roused the dust devils.
3.Why did the tourists throng to see Tut’s tomb? What was their reaction?
The tourists came to pay their respects to King Tut. They admired the murals and Tut’s
gilded face on his mummy-shaped outer coffin. They read from the guidebooks in
whisper, or stood silently, pondering over Tut’s untimely death, dreading, lest the
pharaoh’s curse befall those who disturbed him.
4.Who was Howard Carter? What did he find?
Howard Carter was the British archaeologist who in 1922 discovered Tut’s tomb after
years of unsuccessful search. He discovered the richest royal collection ever found that
included stunning artifacts in gold that caused a sensation.
5.Tut was buried in March-April. How did Carter conclude this?
On opening a coffin, Carter found a shroud decorated with garlands of willow and olive
leaves, wild celery, lotus petals and cornflowers. Since these flowers grow in March or
April, Carter concluded that the burial was in these months.
6.“When he finally reached the mummy, though, he ran into trouble.” Why was it so?
When Carter tried to raise the mummy out of the coffin, he could not. The ritual resins
had hardened, cementing Tut’s body to the bottom of his solid gold coffin. No amount of
force could pull it out.
7.How did he decide to detach the mummy? Why?
First Carter tried to loosen the resins with the heat of the sun. For several hours, he put
the mummy outside in blazing sunshine that heated it to 149 degrees Fahrenheit but it
was in vain. Then he decided to carve it out from beneath the limbs and trunk as there
was no other way of raising the king’s remains.
8.What were the treasures found in the coffin? Why were they put there?
King Tut’s coffin contained precious collars, inlaid necklaces and bracelets, rings,
amulets, a ceremonial apron, sandals, sheaths for his fingers and toes, and his inner
coffin and mask, all of which were made of pure gold. The royals, in King Tut’s time,
hoped to take their riches along with them for their next life.
9.How has the viewpoint of archaeologists changed with the passage of time?
The archaeologists, earlier, focussed on the treasures that the tomb would yield. The
centre of attention, now, is more on the fascinating details of life and intriguing
mysteries of death. Moreover, now they use more sophisticated tools, including medical
technology.
10.What was the interesting fact about Tut that was brought to light in the late sixties?
In 1968, more than forty years after Carter’s discovery, an anatomy professor X-rayed
the mummy and revealed a startling fact: beneath the resin that caked his chest, his
breast-bone and front ribs were missing.
11.Why was King Tut’s death a big event?
King Tut’s demise was a big event as he was the last of his lineage and his funeral
sounded the death rattle of a dynasty. Moreover, he died at the very young age of about
eighteen.
12.What is known about Tut’s predecessor Amenhotep IV?
Amenhotep IV, during his reign, promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk, and
changed his own name to Akhenaten, or ‘servant of the Aten’, and moved the religious
capital to the new city of Akhetaten. He outraged the country by attacking Amun, a
major god, smashing his images and closing his temples.
13.What made a guard remark, ‘curse of the pharaoh’?
When Tut’s body was taken out to be scanned and the million-dollar scanner had
stopped functioning because of sand in a cooler fan, the guard jokingly remarked that
the king had expressed his annoyance at being disturbed.
14.With King Tut was being finally laid to rest, nature was at rest too. Explain.
When King Tut was finally laid to rest, the wind stopped blowing and was still, like death
itself. Orion, the constellation that the ancient Egyptians knew as the soul of Osiris, the
god of the afterlife, was sparkling. It seemed to be watching over the boy king.
1.Nature echoed the unnatural happenings with King Tut’s body. Comment.
To set to rest the modem world’s speculation about King Tut, the body was taken out of
its resting place some 3,300 years later. He was required to undergo a CT scan to
generate precise data for an accurate forensic reconstruction. As the body was taken
out, raging wind began to blow which seemed to arouse the eerie devils of dust. Dark
clouds gathered and appeared to shroud the stars in a grey-coloured coffin. When the
body was put down for scan, the million-dollar scanner seemed to keep from
functioning.
There was sand in a cooler fan. It was when he was finally laid to rest, that the winter air
lay cold and still, like death itself, in this valley of the departed. Just above the entrance
to Tut’s tomb stood Orion the constellation that the ancient Egyptians knew as the soul
of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, supervising the young pharaoh returning to his rightful
place.
2.“The mummy is in a very bad condition because of what Carter did in the 1920s.” What
did Carter do and why?
Howard Carter was the British archaeologist who in 1922 discovered Tut’s tomb. He
searched its contents in haste. The tomb, which had stunning artefacts in gold, caused
a sensation at the time of the discovery.
After months of carefully recording the treasures in the pharaoh’s coffin, Carter began
investigating the three nested coffins. When he finally reached the mummy, he found
that the ritual resins had hardened. Thus, Tut’s body was cemented to the bottom of his
solid gold coffin. Carter set the mummy outside in blazing sun that heated it up to 149
degrees Fahrenheit, to no avail.
To prevent the thieves from ransacking, he chiselled the body free. To separate Tut from
his embellishments, Carter’s men removed the mummy’s head and severed nearly every
major joint.
3.Describe the changing attitudes of the archaeologists over a span of time.
Archaeology has changed substantially in the intervening decades. It now focusses less
on treasure and more on the interesting details of life and the intriguing mysteries of
death. It also uses more sophisticated tools, including medical technology. In 1968,
more than forty years after Carter’s discovery, an anatomy professor X-rayed the
mummy and revealed a startling fact: beneath the resin that cakes King Titu’s chest, his
breast bone and front ribs were missing.
Today, diagnostic 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 a three
dimensional virtual body. It can even answer questions such as how a person died, and
how old he was at the time of his death.
4.What are the facts that are known about King Tut’s lineage?
Amenhotep III, Tut’s father or grandfather, was a powerful pharaoh who ruled for almost
four decades at the height of the eighteenth dynasty’s golden age. His son Amenhotep
IV succeeded him and initiated one of the strangest periods in the history of ancient
Egypt. The new pharaoh promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk, changed his
name to Akhenaten, or ‘servant of the Aten’, and moved the religious capital
from the old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, now known as Amama. He
further shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and
closing his temples. After Akhenaten’s death, a mysterious ruler named Smenkhkare
appeared briefly and exited with hardly a trace. A very young Tutankhaten took the
throne as the king, thereafter.
