Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues Summary Class 11 English

This chapter, which was written by A.R. Williams, is about Tutankhamun, the last heir of the illustrious Pharaoh Dynasty, who passed away as a youngster after nine years of rule. This chapter sheds light on all the potential mysteries surrounding his death, including the curse, the location of his tomb, his life, and eventually his demise. The Pharaohs were buried with wealth and goods of daily use because Egyptians have the belief that there is life after death.

Detailed Summary

When Tutankhamun, also called Tut, passed away, he was still a young man. He was the strong Pharaoh Dynasty's final heir, and for generations, they had dominated Egypt and its empire. He was asleep and weighed down with gold. When his grave was found in 1922, the world began to wonder what had become of him and whether he had been killed. His body was ready to undergo a CT scan, which would reveal new details and hints about his life and demise after almost 80 years. With the aid of a process called forensic reconstruction, his face would be rebuilt.

As King Tut's body was removed from the Valleys of the Kings, an ancient Egyptian cemetery where he was buried, a swift, odd, and unnatural wind was blowing (the location of the Valley of the Kings is indicated in the image). Throughout the day, swiftly moving dark clouds hid the stars as they travelled across the desert. King Tut's mummy, the most renowned mummy in the world, was put in a CT scanner on January 5, 2005, at 6 o'clock in order to look into the circumstances surrounding his more than 3300-year-old death.

All afternoon, tourists visited the 26 feet deep, underground rock-cut tomb to pay respect to the king. Mnay people stuffed into the small tomb and looked in admiration at the murals on the walls of the chamber and took a look at the face of Tut that had been painted with gold. While visitors read the guidebooks in a hushed tone, some stood silently, wondering about his untimely death in his teen years.

They might also be wondering if the curse of the pharaoh which leads to the descend of misfortune upon the person who disturbs him is true. The mummy was in extremely poor condition due to what British archaeologist Howard Carter did to it in the 1920s, according to Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt, who stooped over the body to have a look.

In 1922, after a protracted search, he came across King Tut's tomb. The priceless Tut treasures had already been investigated, yet unexpectedly, they were complete. The largest wealth ever discovered was discovered in Tut's grave, and it has come to be known as the "legend of the Pharaoh." There are golden objects there that are flawless and ethereally gorgeous. Even now, these artefacts draw interest. Tut was laid to rest with everyday items that he could use in the afterlife, including a bronze razor, games, pants made of linen and boxes of food and drink.

It took Carter a few months to catalogue the artefacts that were uncovered in Tut's tomb. Then he started looking inside his three coffins, which were stacked one inside the other. He discovered a piece of cloth in the first casket that contained garlands made of willow, olive leaves, wild celery, lotus petals, and cornflower, which indicated that he had been interred in March or April.

He was in trouble when he got to the third coffin. Due to the resins that had been used to cement the body, it had solidified and clung to the gold-plated coffin's bottom. The two would not separate with any amount of effort, leaving Carter unsure of what to do. Carter kept the body in the intense sun in an effort to break up the resins. He exposed the mummy to heat for several hours at 149 degrees Fahrenheit, yet it persisted in being stuck. He said that Tut's body could be removed from the casket by using a chisel to remove the mummy's limbs and trunk.

Carter said he was forced to hack the mummy and had no other option. He was of the opinion that if he hadn't done that, burglars would have taken the riches out of the tomb and robbed it. The royal populace at the time of Tut was extremely wealthy, and they held the view that they could carry their wealth with them into the afterlife. For his life beyond death, he received priceless collars, ornamental pattern necklaces, bracelets, rings, amulets, ceremonial aprons, sandals, sheaths for his fingers and toes, and now, an iconic inner coffin and a mask.

His head and all of his body's joints were taken off by his guys. When they were done, they put the pieces back together in a wooden box with cushioning inside that was covered with sand to hide the damage. His new resting place was there. Archaeology has undergone a transformation over the past few decades, with a current emphasis on the minutiae of life and the mysteries of death.

Prior to then, the treasure was the main goal. These days, it conducts research using more modern medical technology and equipment. King Tut's mummy's front limbs and breast bone were gone when an anatomy professor X-rayed it in 1968. Thanks to technological advancements, a CT scan, or computed tomography, may now produce a virtual representation of the entire body.

This technology would be used to scan King Tut's body in order to determine his age at the time of death as well as how he died. The fact that he was the last surviving member of his family and that his funeral signalled the end of his dynasty shocked the royals as well. But it's still unclear what occurred following his passing.

Amenhotep III, who reigned for forty years, was Tut's paternal grandpa or father and an extremely strong Pharaoh. The most bizarre era in Egyptian history began when his son Amenhotep IV replaced him. He encouraged people to worship Aten (the sun disc). His name was altered to Akhenaten, which means servant of the Atens. A second change he made was to relocate the seat of religion from Thebes to Akhenaten's constructed Amarna.

The god Amun was also targeted by him, and his temples and pictures were destroyed. Since the family that had governed for generations came to an end and Akhenaten took an unusual turn, Ray Johnson, director of the University of Chicago, speculated that the empire must have been in horrible shape at the time.

He was followed by Smenkhhare, a mystery monarch who passed very quickly. Then, Tutankhamun, also known as Tut, occupied the throne and ruled for nine years. He practised traditional forms of worship for the god Amun. But he passed away inexplicably.

Tut is one of the Egyptian mummies. While, up till this point, the Egyptian Mummy Project, which was launched in 2003, has helped to record approximately 600 mummies. The first mummy to be CT scanned using the machine supplied by the National Geographic Society and Siemens was King Tut's.

The body was scanned using 1700 digitised cross-sectional X-rays produced by the CT scanner. To capture the minute details, 0.62 mm slices of Tut's head were scanned. The outcome was a rather peculiar visual. The mysteries of the grave, which had been long guarded by flying goddesses, were being investigated by a team of experts in radiology, forensics, and anatomy. To remove the body from the tomb and place it in the moving sand outside, workers ascended the ramp and the set of stairs throughout the night. After lifting the body onto a hydraulic lift and placing it in a trailer with the scanner, they processed the body. Two men immediately hurried to the nearby office to bring two fans after twenty minutes had passed. Due to the sand getting into a cooler fan, the scanner was not functioning. The guard made light of the fact that his body had been removed, joking that it was due to the pharaoh's curse.

Workers ascended the ramp and the flight of stairs throughout the night to remove the body from the tomb and place it in the whirling sand outside. They raised the body onto a hydraulic lift and placed it into a trailer with the scanner. After twenty minutes, two men rushed to bring two fans from the nearby workplace. Due to the sand getting inside a cooler fan, the scanner was inoperable.

The guard made light of the fact that they had taken the pharaoh's body, joking that it was due to the pharaoh's curse. The process was finished once the fans started to function. Technicians returned the body to the pallbearers, who transported it back to his tomb after the data was reviewed for any losses. He had been placed to rest in the same spot by the priests many years earlier and would be there in less than three hours.

On a computer screen in the trailer, the technician displayed a stunning picture of Tut. He swung the grey skull, which was covered in pixels, around and displayed it. Then, the rib cage, hand, vertebrae, and transection of his head were displayed. The burden was finally lifted off Zahi Hawass' shoulders once the work was completed. He added, grinning, "I'm relieved that nothing went wrong," as he sat in his chair.

As soon as the work was finished, he would retire to bed because he hadn't slept the previous night. The wind had stopped by the time they stepped outside the caravan, and the winter air was as icy as death. The Orion constellation glittered in the night sky directly over the tomb, keeping watch over the young king.