Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues

Tutankhamun

Prepared By:Y. Rama Prasad,

PGT EnglishJawahar

Navodaya Vidyalay

Panchawati, North & Middle

Andaman

The history of ancient Egypt and their Customs and traditions

18thDynastyPerhaps the height of Egyptian wealth and power came between 1550 and 1290 BC. The dynasty began with the expulsion of the Palestinian Hyksos rulers from the north of Egypt by King Ahmose I - an event that may have inspired the Biblical story of the Exodus. Carrying forward the momentum of this act, subsequent rulers, in particular Thutmose III, established an empire of client states in Syria-Palestine, and dominions stretching towards the heart of Africa. War booty and lively international trade founded on Egypt's highly productive gold mines made Egypt a major world player.

King Akhenaten

Around 1350 BC, however, King Akhenaten (formerly known as Amenhotep IV - see above) turned Egypt on its head by abolishing all the nation's gods, and replacing them with a single sun-god, the Aten. The new faith was accompanied by a radical new art-style, as seen in the statuette above, currently owned by the Louvre.

The cult of Aten, however, barely survived the death of its patron. Within a few years, orthodoxy had been re-established and Akhenaten's very dynasty had died out, leaving the throne to a series of generals, the last of whom, Ramesses I, was the founder of a new 19th Dynasty.

After the death of Akhenaten, a mysterious ruler named Smenkhkare took over throne for short period.

After Smenkhkare, Turankhaten took the thorne- King Tut as he is widely known today.

Tutankhamun

Customs and Traditions Ancient Egypt was a land of elaborate religious customs.

Egyptians fervently believed in the concept of an afterlife, and thus, funerary tradition was always enacted with deeply religious implications.

They also believed devoutly in the Divine Right of Kings.

Pharaoh was a representative of the Gods.

Pharaoh was entitled to greater wealth and prosperity in the next life.

HOWARD CARTER AND THE DISCOVERY OF TUTANKHAMUN

The tomb of Tutankhamun, which is today designated as KV 62, was number 4.33 in Howard Carter's sequence of discoveries since 1915.

Carter took almost a decade to carefully preserve and remove the treasures to Cairo.

Howard Carter did a good job by discovering King Tut but he did not do good to mummy. During his investigations he damaged the mummy.

Howard Carter

ADVANCED MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY AND THEIR USE

In order to find out the reasons behind the death of King Tut at an early age of 19 the following scientific device was used.

Computed tomography (CT) is a powerful nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique for producing 2-D and 3-D cross-sectional images of an object from flat X-ray images. Characteristics of the internal structure of an object such as dimensions, shape, internal defects, and density are readily available from CT images.

Computed tomography

How a CT system works

The imaging system provides a shadowgraph of an object, with the 3-D structure compressed onto a 2-D plane.

A number of slices through the object can be reconstructed to provide a 3-D view of internal and external structural details. As shown below, the 3-D image can then be manipulated and sliced in various ways to provide thorough understanding of the structure.

Egyptian Mummy Project Egyptiona Mummy

Project- began an inventory in late 2003.

Till now it has recorded almost 600 mummies so far and still counting.

They scan the mummies with a CT.

They reconstructed the face of the most famous Egypt's mummy Tutankhamun. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General

of Egypt’s Supreme council

The reconstructed face of Tutankhamun

Three independent artist-scientist teams, one French, one American, and one Egyptian, used modern forensic techniques to reconstruct Tut’s face. Two of these teams were chosen and sponsored by the National Geographic; the third was selected by the SCA.

THE REASONS BEHIND KING TUT’S

DEMISE

More than 3,000 years after the death of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamen, questions are still being asked about how he died. Was it a natural death or was he murdered?

If he were murdered, who did it? Was it Aye, Tutankhamen's vizier who ascended to the

throne after his death and married his wife? Or was it Horernhab, the army officer who became king

after Aye’s short four-year rule?

A very recent medical examination of the remains of King Tutankhamun suggest that he may have not been murdered, but died instead from an infection caused by a broken leg.

SCIENTIFIC INTERVENTION TO UNEARTH

BURIED MYSTERIES Dr. Hawass led the effort to see what King Tut, who died over three

thousand years ago, might have looked like in life. Under his direction three independent artist-scientist teams, one French, one American, and one Egyptian, used modern forensic techniques to reconstruct Tut’s face.

These likenesses are based on CT scan data collected by an all-Egyptian team, led by Dr. Hawass, using a portable CT scanner provided by the National Geographic Society and Siemens AG. The scan took place on January 5, 2005, in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor

The scientific team concluded that Tutankhamun was about 19 when he died. He was well-fed, and showed no signs of childhood diseases or malnutrition.

They did note a bad fracture just above the left knee that may have occurred a day or two before the king died (rather than being caused by the embalmers or Carter’s team). “It is possible that this injury became infected and killed the king,” says team leader Zahi Hawass.

We can conclude with the

help of science only we can know about past very well otherwise everything would go in speculations.

References http://touregypt.net/featurestories/killtut.htm http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC00112/death.htm http://guardians.net/hawass/Press_Release_05-05_Tut_Reconstruc

tion.htm http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Radi

ography/AdvancedTechniques/xrsim.htm http://voanews.com/english/portal.cfm http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tutexcavation.htm MS Encarta 2006