CHAPTER 3 : DISCOVERING TUT : THE SAGA CONTINUES

%%Written by : A. R. Williams%%

Table of contents:

  • Summary
  • Glossary
  • Textbook Questions and Answers

Summary:

  • Tutankhamun was a teenage heir to the royal throne of Egypt.
  • He died very young. He was the last of the line of his family.
  • With his death a very powerful dynasty which ruled Egypt, came to an end.
  • Amenhotep III was his father or grandfather.
  • He was a very powerful Pharaoh. He ruled for 40 years. Amenhotep IV succeeded him.
  • He promoted the worship of Aten, the sun-disk. He changed his name to Akhenaten i…. servant of the Aten.
  • He shifted his capital from old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten.
  • The country was shocked when he attacked Amun, a major God of the Egyptians.
  • He broke down his image and closed his temples. After his death he was succeeded by a mysterious ruler.
  • But he too died soon. Then Tutankhamun ascended the throne of Egypt. He was popularly known as Tut.
  • He restored ways and worship of God Amun. He changed his name to Tutankhamun.
  • He ruled Egypt for a short period of nine years. His mummy was discovered in 1922 by a British archaeologist Howard Carter.
  • Perhaps Tut was murdered and laid to rest with a lot of gold, everyday things of requirements and cases of food and wine. The Egyptians believed in life after death.
  • Howard Carter discovered the tomb after a long search in 1922.
  • Most of the treasure buried in the tomb was already looted.
  • The treasure was richest royal collection. The rock-cut tomb was 26 feet underground. Walls had paintings.
  • The coffin had his face gilden. The treasure was recorded.
  • After three months, began the investigation of the three layer coffin in the tomb.
  • The first layer had garlands of olive leaves. lotus petals and cornflowers.
  • This suggests that the burial might have taken place in March or April.
  • On reaching the mummy Carter had to face trouble. Resins were used for cementing the gold coffin.
  • It had become very hard. It was impossible to free the body from the coffin.
  • The burning sun failed to melt it. Resins had to be removed with chisel and hammer.
  • To draw the body out, they had to cut the mummy limb by limb. This would also avoid the theft of gold.
  • First head was removed, then every joint was removed.
  • Later the body was reassembled on a layer of sand in a wooden box and then put in the original place.
  • In 1968 Anatomy professors X-rayed the mummy and revealed new facts.
  • The breast-bone and the front ribs were missing.
  • Today (Computed Tomography) CT takes hundreds of X-rays and creates a three-dimensional image of the body.
  • On 5th Jan. 2005 the mummy of Tut was put into a CT scanner.
  • They wanted to find out how Tut had died and the age at the time of his death. Siemens, the manufacturer of the scanner donated the scanner.
  • After scanning, it was revealed that Tut had died 3300 years ago. On the night of scanning, they had put the body in a trailer.
  • The process took less than 3 hrs. the Pharaoh was carried back to the tomb. All the doubts were dispelled.
  • Nothing had gone seriously wrong. Today Tut is resting in the valley of departed kings of Egypt.

Facts: Tutankhamun

(Ruled C. 1332-1323 BC in the conventional chronology)

Father: Akhenaten (Formerly Amenhotep IV)

Glossary:

  1. Forensic reconstruction: activity of building again something damaged or to help scientific test to solve crime.
  2. Scudded across: moved quickly across something.
  3. Casket grey: (here) grey sky
  4. Resurrection: a new beginning for something which is old
  5. Funerary treasures: collection of valuable things used at a funeral
  6. Circumvented: found a way of avoiding a difficulty or a rule
  7. Computed tomography: tomography in which computer analysis of a series of X-Ray scans made of a badily structure or tissue which is used to construct the three dimensional image of that structure
  8. Eerie detail: strange and frightening little bits of facts
  9. Saga: long story covering A period of many years
    1. Speculated: to form an opinion, to guess
    2. Ransacked: searched
    3. Laid to rest: (here) buried
    4. Lavish with: adore luxuriously with

Textbook Questions and Answers:

^^1. Give reasons for the following: (1)King Tut's body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny^^.

Ans.

  • King Tut's body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny for the riches it was buried with.
  • There has also been a lot of speculation about the manner of his death and the time of his death.

^^(2) Howard Carter's investigation was resented.^^

Ans.

  • Howard Carter's investigation was resented because he used unscientific methods to cut the body away from the wooden base.
  • He also focused more on the discovery of gold than on the fascinating details of Tut's life and the mysteries of his death.

^^(3) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king's remains.^^

Ans.

  • Carter found that the ritual resin that was used as a polish has hardened.
  • The result was that the mummy was cemented to the bottom of the solid gold coffin.
  • Neither the strongest force could move the mummy nor the burning sun could loosen the remains of the king,

^^(4) Tut's body was buried along with glided treasures^^.

Ans.

  • The ancient royals of Egypt were fabulously wealthy. They believed in afterlife.
  • They also believed that they could take their wealth with them. So, gilded treasures were buried with them.

^^(5) The boy changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun^^

Ans.

  • Tutankhamun means 'Living image of Amun'.
  • He was a major god in ancient Egypt. King Amenhotep smashed the images of Amun and closed his temples.
  • Tut oversaw a restoration of the old ways. He also changed his name to express his belief on Amun.

^^2. (1) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten 'wacky'.^^

Ans.

  • Akhenaten means the servant of the Aten i.e.. the sun-disk.
  • He moved the religious capital from the old city of the Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, known now as Amarna. He smashed the images of Amun, a major God and closed his temples.
  • These deeds led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten 'wacky’.

^^(2) What were the results of the CT scan?^^

Ans:

  • The results of the CT scan were quite encouraging.
  • 1700 digital X-ray images in cross section were created.
  • A grey head appeared on screen. Neck vertebrae were quite clear.
  • The images of hand, ribcage and skull were equally bright.
  • These revealed that nothing had gone seriously wrong with Tut's body.

^^(3) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.^^

Ans.

  • The advances in technology have helped in improving forensic analysis.
  • Many scientific tests can be carried out to determine the causes of crime.
  • These include X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan, postmortem, autopsy and biopsy.
  • All these help in diagnosis and provide exact information.

^^(4) Explain the statement: “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned in death as in life…”^^

Ans.

  • King Tut's mummy was the first one to be X-rayed by an anatomy professor in 1968.
  • On 5 January, 2005 CT scan created virtual reality and produced life-like images.
  • King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned.
  • Thus, in death as well as in life Tut moved regally ahead of his countrymen.

Poem 2: The Laburnum top

%%Written by: Ted Hughes%%

Summary:

  • The Laburnum Top' is a very powerful poem in which the laburnum symbolizes the hardships in life.
  • The poem describes the laburnum tree whose seeds have not only fallen but also the leaves have turned yellow.
  • It is an afternoon in September and the tree top is silent until a goldfinch appears.
  • As soon as the goldfinch appears, there is a sudden strong tremor in the tree; there are noises of twitching of wings and chirping in bird language.
  • The whole tree trembles. The engine of the bird's family has appeared that is the mother goldfinch has brought food for her babies.
  • The movement of the goldfinch is like a lizard, sleek and smooth.
  • She is the engine of her family, which means she is working to provide nutrition to the family just like the engine is the major part of a machine.
  • In the end, the goldfinch again launches herself in the sky in a mysterious way and the laburnum is reduced to silence and emptiness again.

Glossary:

  1. Laburnum: a small tree with hanging branches of yellow flowers and poisonous seed
  2. Goldfinch: a small singing bird with yellow feathers on wings
  3. Twitch: movement of a small body part
  4. Chirrup: sound made by birds
  5. Startlement: amazement
  6. Sleek: smooth
  7. Chitterling singing sound of birds
  8. Stokes: add fuel to the engine, (in poem) the goldfinch is a source of food to the family
  9. Eerie: strange or mysterious

Textbook Questions and Answers:

^^1) What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?^^

Ans: In the beginning of the poem the tree is calm and silent and in the ending it ends with motionless and empty level.

^^2) To what is the bird's movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?^^

Ans:

  • The goldfinch's movement is compared to that of a lizard.
  • The basis of the comparison the sleek, abrupt and alert movements of a lizard.
  • The same kinds of movements are observed when the goldfinch arrives on the laburnum tree.

^^3) Why is the image of engine evoked by the poet?^^

Ans.

  • The engine is the source of energy to run machine.
  • It is compared to bird as she too is a source of energy for her family.
  • As without engine a machine can't work in the same without a mother bird her family can't survive.

^^4) What do you like most about the poem ?^^

Ans.

  • I like presentation of the poem.
  • The comparison between bird's the simplicity and pictorial movement with machine and Lizard is made in nice way.
  • Also chirruping and trilling of goldfinch bring to us audio-imagery.

^^5) What does the phrase 'her barred face identity mask' mean?^^

  • Ans. The phrase means that the bird's barred or covered face becomes her identity mask for recognition.

^^6) What is 'laburnum' as mentioned in the poem 'The Laburnum Top'?^^

Ans.

  • In the poem "The Laburnum Top by the poet Ted Hughes, laburnum' is the golden chain tree which is a commonly found tree with golden flowers that hang in the bunches.

^^(7) According to you what the 'laburnum’ stands for in the poem?^^

Ans.

  • The late twentieth century poet Ted Hughes draws a very clear symbolism through this very figure of laburnum tree in the poem. "The Laburnum Top'.
  • Actually the laburnum symbolizes the hardships in life of every living being.
  • It stands for the upheavelish survival requirement all throughout one's life.

^^8) How does the poem 'The Laburnum top’ begin?^^

Ans.

  • The poem 'The Laburnum Top' has begun with an immense solitude.
  • The very top of the laburnum tree is calm and silent with the fading yellowish sunlight in a solemn afternoon of September.
  • The tree is standing with the remaining few dull yellow leaves and bereft of any seed.