King Tut was just a teenager when he died. He was the last heir of a powerful family that had ruled Egypt for centuries. He was laid to rest, laden with large quantities of gold, and eventually forgotten.

It was when his tomb was discovered that the modem world wondered why he had died at such an early age. The possibility of him being murdered could not be ruled out.

Question - 2 : - Give reasons for the following.
(ii) How are Carter’s investigation was resented.

Answer - 2 : -

Howard Carter was the British archaeologist who in 1922 discovered Tut’s tomb. His investigation was resented because Carter’s men removed the mummy’s head and cut off nearly every major joint to separate Tut from his adornments. They, then, reassembled the remains on a layer of sand in a wooden box and put him back.

Question - 3 : - Give reasons for the following.
(iii) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king’s remains.

Answer - 3 : -

The solidified material had to be cut away from below the limbs and chest before it was possible to raise King Tut out. This had to be done because if Carter had not cut the mummy free, thieves would have evaded the guards and tom the mummy apart to remove the gold that was buried with Tut.

Question - 4 : - Give reasons for the following.
(iv) Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures.

Answer - 4 : -

Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures that remain the richest royal collection ever found. The beautiful works of art in gold were buried with everyday things he would want in the afterlife: board games, a bronze razor, linen undergarments, cases of food and wine. The Egyptian royals believed that they could take their riches with them after death.

Question - 5 : - Give reasons for the following.
(v) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.

Answer - 5 : -

King Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun, which meant “living image of Amun”, to show that he meant to restore the old ways. This was because Amenhotep IV, his predecessor, promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk, changed his name to Akhenaten, or “servant of the Aten”. He shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples.

Question - 6 : - List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as “wacky”.

Answer - 6 : -

According to Ray Johnson, Akhenaten was crazy because he started one of the strangest periods in the history of ancient Egypt. He 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, known now as Amama. He further shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples.

Question - 7 : - What were the results of the CT scan?

Answer - 7 : -

A CT machine scanned the mummy from head to toe and created 1,700 digital X-ray images in cross section. Tut’s head was scanned in 0.62 millimetre slices to register its complicated structures to probe the secrets of his death. The neck vertebrae, other images of a hand, several views of the rib cage, and a transection of the skull showed that there was nothing amiss in his death.

Question - 8 : - List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.

Answer - 8 : -

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.

Question - 9 : - Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned—in death, as in life… ”

Answer - 9 : -

King Tut is one of the first mummies to be studied under a CT scan. In real life, he was the Pharaoh—the leader of his country. Hence both in life and death he moved majestically ahead of his countrymen.

Question - 10 : -
Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.

Answer - 10 : -

Necessary

Better tools for locating sites/information/life and death
Better equipment to study unearthed facts for example, murder/natural death
Evidence is evaluated scientifically
Helps in ending doubts/fallacies through improved equipment
Ends idle speculation through empirical proof

Unnecessary

Engineers and scientists from Japan have not been able to find out how pyramids were built (quarrying/ transporting/placing stone) despite recreating/studying available data
Scientific intervention destroys evidence at times
Scientific knowledge is biased starts with a hypothesis. Investigation that begins with a predetermined outcome and searches for evidence to prove a foregone conclusion, disregards other perspectives. Research showed, for example, that the fact that Tut died of head injury was false

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