Question

What problem did Carter face when he reached the mummy? How did he find a way out?

Answer 1

Hint: The question is taken from the chapter ‘Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues', class 11th English textbook. In 1922, a British archaeologist named ‘Howard Carter’ discovered King Tut’s tomb after years of futile searching. Even though the place had been ransacked earlier, he still found fabulous treasure in the tomb.

Complete answer:
Three nested coffins were found by Carter. In the first, he found the garlands made of leaves and flowers, but on reaching the mummy, he got into trouble. Carter found that the ritual resins had become quite stiff. These had fixed the body of Tut to the bottom of his solid gold coffin. Even the sun’s heat could not melt it.

So Carter decided to remove the solid resins using a chisel and hammer in order to free the King’s remains from the coffin. Even they had to remove Tut’s mummy part by part. Having taken out the gold coffin, Carter’s men removed the mummy’s head and cut off every joint in order to remove the golden ornaments. Then they reassembled the body parts on a layer made of sand in a wooden box and filled it with a soft material to hide the damage they had caused.

Note: This chapter was written by A.R. Williams, and it aims at throwing light on the possible mysteries about Egyptian Pharaoh, Tutankhamen, which were his curse, his tomb, his life and finally his death. It was believed that there was life after death and that the Pharaoh should be buried with his everyday items and wealth.