PUSHPALATA VIDYA MANDIR

CLASS XI - ENGLISH NOTES – HB 3. DISCOVERING TUT: THE SAGE CONTINUES

I. Answer the following questions in 40 words:

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 modern world wondered about what
happened to him and wondered if he could have been murdered.

2. How did nature seem to echo the unnatural happenings?

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
guide-books in whisper, or stood silently, pondering over Tut’s untimely
death, dreading, lest the Pharaoh’s curse should befall those who disturbed
him.

4. Who was Howard Carter? What did he find?

Howard Carer 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 artefacts 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 the blazing sunshine that heated it to
142 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 the 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 starting 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, changed his own name to Akhenaten, or ‘servant of the Aten’, and
moved the religious capital to the new city of Akheten. 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 the cooler fan, the guard jokingly
remarked that the king had expressed his annoyance at being disturbed.

14. With King Tut 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 after-life was sparkling. It seemed
to be watching over the boy king.

Answer the following questions in 150 words each:

1. Nature echoed the unnatural happenings with King Tut’s body. Comment.
To set to rest the modern 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, 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 the 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 after-life,
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 hold, 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 the blazing sun that heated it up to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, to no
avail. To prevent the thieves from looting the jewellery, he removed the
mummy’s head and severed nearly every major joint.

3. Describe the changing attitudes of the archaeologist over a span of time.

Archaeology has changed substantially in the intervening decades. It now
focuses less on treasures and more on the interesting details of life and
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 Tut’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 was he 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 Akhenaten, now known as Amarna. 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
boy, Tutankhaten took the throne as the King, thereafter.

5. Discuss the suitability of the title, ‘Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues’.
The title is appropriate for describing the attempts to discover the truth
about King Tut. The tomb had been raided in the remote past, but had
remained largely intact till it was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. King
Tut had died young. The reason of his death remains a mystery even today.
The possibility of murder has not been ruled out. Therefore, continuous
efforts go on to unravel the mystery. In 1922, Carter had cut the mummy
into pieces to remove it from its coffins. He had carefully examined the
funerary treasures buried with King Tut. Sophisticated tools of archaeology
including medical technology have been used since the 20th century to unravel
King Tut’s mystery. In 1968, the mummy was X-rayed. In 2005, the mummy
was brought out from its deep burial chamber for CT scan. The focus now is
not on the treasures but on Tut’s life and his mysterious death. In the
coming years, the attempt to discover the whole truth about Tut will
continue.
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CHECKED & APPROVED BY

MS. BLISS BERNARD