NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Prose Chapter 3:Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues

The story, written by A.R. Williams, presents the historical account of the youngest and the last heir of the Pharaoh Dynasty, whom we come to know as Tutankhamun. The story discusses the life of Tutankhamun, his rule, legacy and the theories surrounding his mysterious death at a young age.

Tutankhamun succeeded the throne at a very young age and ruled for around 9 years. He was a worshipper of Amun and practised all worshipping rituals of the old ways. His cause of death could not be determined at that time, and his body was preserved in a coffin and placed in a tomb along with vast riches, gold, bronze razor, games, clothes, cases of food and wine. After several centuries, British Archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb's location in the 'Valley of the Kings' and excavated it.

From the designs on a shroud, he inferred the time of Tutankhamun's death to be around March or April. Carter ordered for the mummified body to be cut into sections so that he could bring it to a laboratory to study it because the body was stuck to the heavy coffin and it could not be carried. He brought the separated sections and arranged them in the laboratory for an X-ray scan. The scans revealed the missing breast and front rib bones. Several more tests were done on the body spanning years of study. In the year 2009, further CT scans were conducted on the mummified body of the young Pharaoh. After all, scans were done, the mummified body was carried back to the tomb's initial resting place.

The scans and 3D-imagine helped historians rebuild the young Pharaoh's facial structure, whose remains were the only clue of his death. There were theories speculating murder being the primary cause of the death of Tutankhamun. There were rumours circulated among the people about the truth of the curse of Tutankhamun, which was said to affect those who disturbed him.