GRADE 11, ENGLISH CORE, DISCOVERING TUT (CBSE)

 

GRADE 11, CBSE, ENGLISH

DISCOVERING TUT, THE SAAGA CONTINUES

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ANSWERED BY M.K.CHANDRAN

mkchandran.blogspot.com

 

Short Answers:

1. Why did Tut change his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun?
Ans: There were two famous Gods in ancient Egypt during Tut's period. They were known as Aten (the Sun God) and Amun, another famous God. Amenhottep IV destroyed the images of Amun God and his temples. The king Tut didn't like it. He worshipped Amun God and he changed his name as Tutakhamun, which meant the servant of Amun God.

2 List some adornments on Tut’s body. Why did they keep the adornments along with the dead body?
Ans: Egyptians believed that there was life after death. So they buried different sorts of adornments along with the dead body. When Carter opened the mummy he found that many wonderful gold ornaments like necklaces, bracelets, rings, amulets and board games, linen undergarments, cases of food and drink. They believed that the deceased would use all those items in their afterlife.

3. Who was Howard Carter? What did he discover?
Ans: Howard Carter was a British Archaeologist.  He wanted to study about the death and the reason of death of the teenager king Tut.  He searched his tomb for many years. But it was fruitless. At last he discovered his tomb in 1922.

4. What did Howard Carter do to separate Tut's body from his coffin?
Ans: Howard Carter had no sophisticated tools to work. He was unable to open the coffin. The ritual resin was very strong and hard. So that he put the coffin in the scorching desert sun and heated it in 147 degree Fahrenheit. But it didn't work. He couldn't take out Tut's body from the coffin. At last he applied chisel and cut the body into pieces and took them out. 

5. Carter took a drastic decision regarding the mummy. What was it? How did he justify it?
Ans: Carter took a drastic decision that he chiseled  away the hardened resins from under Tut’s body. As a result of that the Skelton was damaged. The workers removed Tut’s head and almost all joints. Carter justified it by telling that  if he didn't cut the mummy, thieves would have ripped it in order to get the valuable trasure.

6. Why was Tut’s mummy scanned again after so many years?
Ans: Archaeologists were not satisfied with Howard Carter. He didn't use any advanced technology. In his group there had no radiologists, forensic experts and anatomy professors. Hence the modern archaeologists decided to find out the manner of Tut's death and the age at the time of his death. So they scanned Tut's mummy again.

7. What was the result of the CT Scanning?
Ans: The CT scan  showed a grey head of Tut. The technician spun and tilted it. It also showed the neck vertebrae, a hand and the rib cage. Moreover it also showed the cross section of his skull.

.8. What were the funerary treasures found in the tomb?
Ans: There was a shroud with a decorated garland of willow and olive leaves, wild celery, lotus petals and cornflowers. They calculated that the burial might have taken  place in the month of March or April because those things were easily available in March and April. Golden artifacts and things of every-day use were kept in the burial chamber.

9. How was Amenhotep IV described in ‘the history of ancient Egypt’?
Ans: Amenhotep IV did many  foolish activities. He asked the people to worship Aten, the Sun God, and later he attacked Amun, the major God of many people. He ordered his people to smash the images of Amun and destroy his temples. He also shifted the religious capital from the old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhnaten, which was later known as Amarna.

LONG ANSWER.

1. “The mummy was in very bad condition because of what Carter had done in  1920s,” said Zahi Hawaas. How far is the statement true?

Ans: The above statement was true. Carter easily opened two of the three nested coffins and announced the time of burial by seeing the presence of lotus petals, wild celery, olive leaves, willow leaves and dried cornflowers. They were easily available in the month of March or April in Egypt. In the third coffin where Tut's dead body was kept, the ritual resin was hardened. They fixed  the body to the bottom of the coffin using strong resins. He placed the coffin in 149 degrees temperature of the desert sun, but it didn't work. Thus Carter cut the mummy free.

To separate Tut from the ornaments he cut his body into piece by piece , Carter’s men cut his head and every major joints. They had reassembled them on a layer of sand and laid it back in the coffin, hiding the damage.

Carter said that he cut his body piece by piece to take away his valuable gold ornaments from his body, if not thieves would steal them. During those days archaeology lacked sophisticated tools. Thus we cannot justify Carter's action.