Hornbill - Lesson 3 Discovering Tut - The Saga Continues - A.R. Williams Summary, Glossary, Questions, and Answers Glossary - 1. heir - su...
Hornbill - Lesson 3
Discovering Tut - The Saga Continues - A.R. Williams
Summary, Glossary, Questions, and Answers
Glossary -
1. heir - successor
2. speculated - form a theory without firm evidence
3. forensic reconstruction - the process of creating a face on the skull and what the owner of the skull looked like.
4. pharaoh - ruler in ancient Egypt
5. cemetery - graveyard
6. scudded across - to move quickly
7. casket grey - an ancient decorated box for keeping jewels
8. lingering - lasting for a long time
9. descended - moved to
10. cramped - uncomfortably small or restricted
11. murals - paintings on the walls
12. pondering - thinking about
13. antiquities - of ancient times
14. ransacked - damaged
15. resurrection - rebirth
16. funerary treasures - the valuables like gems and jewels that were buried along with the king
17. legitimate - legal
18. resins - to paint with something
19. budged - to move
20. circumvented - find a way
21. sheaths - cover
22. amulets - lucky charm
23. an intriguing - interesting curiosity
24. computed tomography - computer-controlled X-rays and detectors to produce the image
25. rattle - rapid noise
26. Aten - Egyptian Deity
27. wacky - a little odd, funny
28. regally - royally
29. eerie detail - strange and mysterious
30. pallbearers - coffin carriers
31. swirling - moving pattern
32. astonishing - surprised, impressed
33. Orion - a group of stars in the sky that looks like a hunter with a line of three bright stars for a belt.
Understanding the text-
1. Give reasons for the following.
a) King Tut's body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny.
Ans - For many reasons, King Tut's body has undergone many investigations. He belonged to a royal family of the Egypt civilization who ruled Egypt for centuries, he was the last successor of the dynasty, also he died mysteriously in his teenage.
b) Howard Carter's investigation was resented.
Ans - His investigations were resented because he used many unscientific methods like keeping the body in the blazing sun at the temperature of 149 degrees Fahrenheit to melt the resins covered on the Tut's body, also he made a statement that " the consolidated material had to be chiseled away from beneath the limbs and trunk before it was possible to raise the king's remains". Also, his men removed the mummy's head and severed nearly every major joint.
c) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king's remains.
Ans - When Howard Carter found out about Tut's mummy in 1922, he saw that the ritual resins had hardened over a duration of time and no legal force could remove them. He tried to remove the same by keeping Tut's body in the blazing sun hoping that the heat of the sun could melt down the resins but as it didn't work, he announced the above statement.
d) Tut's body was buried along with glided treasures.
Ans - In Tut's time, the royals were fabulously wealthy and they hoped that they could take their riches with them for their journey to the great beyond, at the same time they believed in resurrection and the afterlife, and therefore Tut's body was buried with glided treasures and with everyday things like board games, a bronze razor, linen undergarments, cases of food and wine.
e) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
Ans - Tutankhamun means, " living image of Amun" and Amun means the major God of the Egyptian Dynasty, and when young Tut took the throne, he realized the restoration of old ways, so changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
2. a) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as, "Wacky".
Ans - Director of the University of Chicago Research Centre, described Akhenaten as, "Wacky" because -
1. He promoted the worship of Aten, the Sun God in place of Amun.
2. He shifted the religious capital from the old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhenaten, known now as Amara.
3. He smashed images and closed the temples of Amun.
4. He changed his name to Akhenaten, " servant of the Aten".
b) What was the result of the C.T. scan?
Ans - Howard Carter was the first person to investigate Tut's mummy, however in the process, he did a lot of damage to the body, and findings of the C.T scan that his breast-bone and front ribs were missing but the mystery behind his death was still there that how did he die.
c) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.
Ans -Over the duration of time, medical science made vast development in almost every field including forensic analysis. Today diagnostic imaging can be done with Computed Tomography (CT), by which hundreds of X-rays in cross-sections are put together like slices of bread to create a three-dimensional virtual body. It is called forensic reconstruction, the process of creating a face on the skull to know what the owner of the skull looked like.
d) Explain the statement, " King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned- in death, as in life..."
Ans - As per the Egyptian Mummy Project, about 600 mummies have been recorded so far and are still counting, but King Tut was the first to be scanned because he was the last emperor of the Egyptian dynasty, he died in his teenage mysteriously.
Thinking about language -
1) Read the following piece of information from the Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal.
Ans - Students may attempt it themselves.
2) What do you think are the reasons for the extinction of languages?
Ans - There could be many reasons for the extinction of languages. As far as the language is concerned it may become extinct because either its use is restricted or not used by a group of people. In India, it is believed that every 20 miles the, "Boli", "Vani" or the language gets changed, so we can imagine how many languages existed in India, but now we may not find those languages, meaning they became extinct. Sometimes people start disliking the language because they think that this is an outdated language and not able to cope with modern scenarios, also sometimes very hard rules and regulations about the language could be another reason.
3) Do you think it is important to preserve languages?
Ans - Yes, I think, it's very important to preserve languages because the language is associated with many aspects such as culture, food, dressing sense, weather, festivals, dance, music, rituals, literature, and many more, if any language gets extinct, then we may lose the rich culture with it. Even though we should try to cultivate the language spoken in the remote countryside, it is also a practice that Indians judge the person and his locality on the language he speaks. Perhaps the languages bind the people together and bring a diversified culture.
4) In what ways do you think we could help prevent the extinction of languages and dialects?
Ans - By following ways we can protect languages and dialects-
1) Mother tongue should be used by the students and children.
2) In schools and colleges, different languages should be taught.
3) Languages and dialects should be transferred to the next generation.
4) Literature, music, songs, and poems are the strongest modes of communication, so if efforts are made, then that particular language may get huge attention and respect because each language has its own beauty and flavor.
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