"Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues" details the story of King Tutankhamun, commonly known as King Tut, the last heir of a powerful Egyptian family that ruled for centuries. The story centers around the use of modern technology, specifically a CT scanner, to examine King Tut’s mummy for the first time in 80 years and uncover new clues about his life, death, and to make an accurate forensic reconstruction of the young pharaoh.
The story begins with a dramatic scene depicting the process of moving King Tut’s remains from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on January 5th, 2005. Tourists from around the world have come to visit the tomb and pay their respects, pondering the circumstances of King Tut’s untimely death in his late teens and the legends of a pharaoh’s curse that brings misfortune to those who disturb his resting place.
The story explains that King Tut’s mummy is in poor condition, largely due to the actions of Howard Carter, the British archaeologist who discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922. While the contents of the tomb had been looted in antiquity, Carter found them relatively intact, including stunning artifacts made of gold and everyday items that King Tut would have needed in the afterlife. When Carter attempted to remove Tut’s mummy from its golden coffin, he found it stuck due to ritual resins and ultimately had to cut the mummy apart to separate it from its golden adornments.
Now, modern archaeology utilizes sophisticated tools, such as CT scans, to learn more about the details of life and death in ancient times. By comparing the new CT scans with previous X-rays taken in 1968 by an anatomy professor, the hope is to gain a better understanding of King Tut’s age at his death, the circumstances of his passing, and any other relevant secrets.
The text also provides context about King Tut’s significance in Egyptian history, being the last of his family’s line and ruler during a tumultuous time when his predecessor, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), attempted to enact radical religious changes. King Tut restored the traditional ways and then died suddenly at a young age, leaving a lasting legacy.
Returning to the scanning process, the story details the difficulties faced while performing the CT scan on the fragile mummy, with a million-dollar scanner stopping due to sand in a cooler fan (jokingly attributed to the pharaoh’s curse). Despite these technical difficulties, the scanning process was eventually completed, and the images they obtained provided astonishing details of King Tut’s remains, such as his neck vertebrae and skull. The examinations are expected to reveal more about King Tut’s life, reign, and death, potentially solving lingering mysteries about the young pharaoh.
The article ends by painting a vivid picture of the cold, still night, with the constellation of Orion visible above King Tut’s tomb, a fitting image that connects the ancient and modern worlds in the ongoing quest to unravel the mysteries surrounding the boy king.
What is the main purpose of using a CT scanner on King Tut's mummy?
