Q. 1. Who was King Tut? Why was a CT scan done on him?
Ans: King Tutankhamun was a boy king of ancient Egypt and the last important heir of a powerful royal family that had ruled for centuries. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. A CT scan was done on his mummy to obtain new, non-invasive clues about his life and death - including his age at death and possible causes of death.
Q. 2. What did the tourists in the burial chamber of King Tut do?
Ans: The tourists studied the murals on the burial-chamber walls and peered at Tut's gilded face. Some stood silently and reflected on the idea of a royal curse, while others moved more quietly, awed by the richness of the burial and the sense of history in the chamber.
Q. 3. What was the Pharaoh's curse? Who refers to it and in what context?
Ans: The Pharaoh's curse was the belief that death or misfortune would befall anyone who disturbed a pharaoh's resting place. Silent visitors to the tomb were the first to mention this idea. Later, a guard made a nervous joke about the curse when a million-dollar scanner briefly failed because sand had clogged a cooler fan.
Q. 4. Which evidence proves the burial of Tut in March or April?
Ans: Tut's shroud was found decorated with faded garlands of willow and olive leaves, wild celery, lotus petals and cornflowers. Some of these plants are available only at the end of winter, which indicates that the burial most likely took place in March or April.
Q. 5. What is so special about the contents of Tut's tomb?
Ans: The tomb contained stunning gold artefacts and other precious objects that together form one of the richest royal collections ever discovered. These items caused a sensation at the time of the discovery and continue to attract the most attention because of their craftsmanship, material and ritual significance.
Q. 6. How had King Tut been lavished the royals when he was buried?
Or
List some of the adornments and golden objects on Tut's body?
Ans: King Tut was buried with an array of glittering goods. These included collars, necklaces, bracelets, rings, amulets, a ceremonial apron, sandals and sheaths. Many of these objects, and even the coffin, were made of pure gold, reflecting the belief that such possessions would accompany and protect the king in the afterlife.
Q. 7. What did Howard Carter find when he began investigating King Tut's three nested coffins?
Ans: When Howard Carter opened the three nested coffins he first found a shroud adorned with garlands of willow, olive leaves, lotus petals and cornflowers. On reaching the innermost coffin he discovered that ritual resins had hardened and cemented the mummy to the bottom of the solid gold coffin.
Q. 8. What became a sensation when Howard Carter, the British archaeologist, discovered Tut's tomb in 1922?
Ans: The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 became a global sensation because of the wealth of gold and finely made objects it contained. Those treasures were intended to symbolically guarantee the king's resurrection; the splendour and scale of the collection captivated the public and scholars alike.
Q. 9. What problem did Carter face when he reached the mummy? How did he find a way out?
Ans: Carter found that the ritual resins used in the burial had hardened and bonded the mummy to the bottom of the solid gold coffin. The resins could not be melted by heat, so the team had to chisel away the hardened material carefully in order to free the remains without causing excessive damage.
Q. 10. Why did Egyptians resent Carter's investigations?
Ans: Many Egyptians resented Carter's work because they took great pride in the preservation of their pharaohs and believed royal mummies should not be disturbed. They felt that Carter was interfering with the dignity and sanctity of a beloved child king and that his actions might cause harm or insult to their heritage.
Q. 11. What did Carter's men finally do to the mummy?
Ans: To separate the many jewellery pieces and ornaments from the body, Carter's workers removed the mummy's head and detached nearly every major joint. After the jewellery was taken off, they reassembled the remains on a layer of sand in a wooden box, using padding to support the reassembled body for transport and study.
Q. 12. What effect did Tut's demise have dynasty?
Ans: King Tutankhamun was among the last important rulers of his royal line. After his death the dynasty weakened and eventually declined, marking an end to that particular sequence of rulers.
Q. 13. Why is January 5, 2005 significant in Tutankhamun's Saga?
Ans: On 5 January 2005 Tutankhamun's mummy was removed from the tomb for the first time and taken to a portable CT scanner set up nearby. This marked a major scientific effort to probe unresolved questions about the young ruler's life and death.
Q. 14. How was the atmosphere when Tut's body was taken for CT scan?
Ans: Violent wind had earlier raised ghost-like clouds of dust, and bulging clouds swept across the desert sky, dimming the stars. The setting was dramatic and tense as the mummy was prepared for scanning in the unsettled weather.
Q. 15. How had archaeology changed substantially in the modern times?
Ans: Archaeology has shifted from a primary focus on treasure hunting to a broader interest in daily life, cultural practices and the mysteries surrounding death. Modern archaeology also uses advanced scientific and medical tools - such as CT scanners - to study finds non-invasively and gain more accurate information.
Q. 16. How did the workmen carry out the CT scanning of Tut's mummy? What happened thereafter?
Ans: The workmen lifted the mummy from its wooden box, carried it up a ramp and a flight of stairs and then raised it on a hydraulic lift into the trailer that housed the portable scanner. During the procedure sand entered the scanner and temporarily disrupted its cooling. Replacement fans were fitted and the scanning continued successfully.
Q. 17. How can CT scan prove more effective than the X-ray?
Ans: A CT scan takes hundreds of X-ray images in cross section and assembles them into a three-dimensional virtual model, similar to stacking many thin slices of bread. A conventional X-ray produces a single two-dimensional image, so CT provides far greater detail and spatial information.
Q. 18. How can diagnostic imaging be done now? What could it reveal about King Tut's mummy?
Ans: Diagnostic imaging can be performed using computed tomography (CT), which combines many cross-sectional X-ray images to build a three-dimensional virtual body. For King Tut's mummy, CT imaging could reveal injuries, congenital conditions, internal features and other evidence that might explain how he died and how old he was at the time of death.
Q. 19. Describe the scene around the place where King Tut's mummy had successfully been CT scanned.
Ans: After the scanning was complete the wind fell and the winter air lay cold and still, giving the site a sombre, almost uncanny hush. Above the tomb entrance rose the stars of Orion, which the ancient Egyptians associated with the soul of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, as if watching over the boy king.
Q. 20. How was king Tut's mummy scanned by the portable CT scanner?
Ans: The portable CT scanner scanned Tut's mummy from head to toe, producing some 1,700 digital X-ray images in cross section to investigate the cause of death and anatomical details. The head was scanned in very fine slices of 0.62 mm to capture intricate details.
Q. 21. How did Zahi Hawass express his satisfaction as the results?
Ans: Zahi Hawass expressed great relief after the scans. He admitted he had not slept the night before because he was so worried, and upon seeing the results he said he would finally be able to sleep.
