RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

Text Book Questions and Answers

Understanding the text

Question 1.
Give reasons for the following.

(i) King Tut’s body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny.
Answer:
1. In 1922, Howard Carter, A British archaeologist, discovered Tut’s tomb and in the process, cut the body to remove it from the coffin.

2. In 1968, a professor of anatomy x-rayed the mummy. He discovered that Tut’s breastbone and front ribs were missing.

3. In January 2005, the mummy was taken out for a CT scan.
King Tut was just a teenager when he died. He was the last heir of a powerful family that had ruled Egypt for centuries. He was laid to rest, laden with large quantities of gold, and eventually forgotten.

It was when his tomb was discovered that the modem world wondered why he had died at such an early age. The possibility of him being murdered could not be ruled out.

(ii) How are Carter’s investigation was resented.
Answer:
Howard Carter was the British archaeologist who in 1922 discovered Tut’s tomb. His investigation was resented because Carter’s men removed the mummy’s head and cut off nearly every major joint to separate Tut from his adornments. They, then, reassembled the remains on a layer of sand in a wooden box and put him back.

(iii) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king’s remains.
Answer:
The solidified material had to be cut away from below the limbs and chest before it was possible to raise King Tut out. This had to be done because if Carter had not cut the mummy free, thieves would have evaded the guards and tom the mummy apart to remove the gold that was buried with Tut.

(iv) Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures.
Answer:
Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures that remain the richest royal collection ever found. The beautiful works of art in gold were buried with everyday things he would want in the afterlife: board games, a bronze razor, linen undergarments, cases of food and wine. The Egyptian royals believed that they could take their riches with them after death.

(v) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
Answer:
King Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun, which meant “living image of Amun”, to show that he meant to restore the old ways. This was because Amenhotep IV, his predecessor, promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk, changed his name to Akhenaten, or “servant of the Aten”. He shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples.

Question 2.
(i) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as “wacky”.
Answer:
According to Ray Johnson, Akhenaten was crazy because he started one of the strangest periods in the history of ancient Egypt. He promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk, changed his name to Akhenaten, or “servant of the Aten”, and moved the religious capital from the old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, known now as Amama. He further shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples.

(ii) What were the results of the CT scan?
Answer:
A CT machine scanned the mummy from head to toe and created 1,700 digital X-ray images in cross section. Tut’s head was scanned in 0.62 millimetre slices to register its complicated structures to probe the secrets of his death. The neck vertebrae, other images of a hand, several views of the rib cage, and a transection of the skull showed that there was nothing amiss in his death.

(iii) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.
Answer:
Today diagnostic imaging can be done with computed tomography, or CT, by which hundreds of X-rays in cross section are put together like slices of bread to create a three-dimensional virtual body.

(iv) Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned—in death, as in life… ”
Answer:
King Tut is one of the first mummies to be studied under a CT scan. In real life, he was the Pharaoh—the leader of his country. Hence both in life and death he moved majestically ahead of his countrymen.

Talking about the text

Discuss the following in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group taking opposite points of view.

Question 1.
Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.
Answer:
Necessary

• Better tools for locating sites/information/life and death
• Better equipment to study unearthed facts for example, murder/natural death
• Evidence is evaluated scientifically
• Helps in ending doubts/fallacies through improved equipment
• Ends idle speculation through empirical proof

Unnecessary

• Engineers and scientists from Japan have not been able to find out how pyramids were built (quarrying/ transporting/placing stone) despite recreating/studying available data
• Scientific intervention destroys evidence at times
• Scientific knowledge is biased starts with a hypothesis. Investigation that begins with a predetermined outcome and searches for evidence to prove a foregone conclusion, disregards other perspectives. Research showed, for example, that the fact that Tut died of head injury was false

Question 2.
Advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events.
Answer:
Gives evidence

• Recreates any event
• Better equipment and tools help in better understanding of events and situations
• Recreation and simulation of events helps in study
• Processes like carbon-dating help fix events in a timeline
• Technology like CT scans help in the study of unearthed material
• Remove fallacious beliefs

Does not give conclusive evidence

• Recreated events may not be authentic in context as information gaps may exist
• Science deals with hardcore facts; there maybe external factors in history that are as yet unknown
• Science judges and draws conclusions based on facts as they exist today; at times they may not be accurate in historical perspective
• Sometimes theories propagated may not be actual facts, for example, the theory that Tut was murdered
• Not an accurate determinant for human behaviour and other sociological facts

Question 3.
Traditions, rituals and funerary practices must be respected.
Answer:
Should be respected

• They are based on beliefs people held dear and they should be respected
• Disrespect to Amun the god most popular in ancient Egypt probably led to the downfall of Amonhotep IV
• People do not like these beliefs questioned
• These beliefs often prove to be scientifically beneficial
• We do not have the right to disrespect views of others

Question 4.
Knowledge about the past is useful to complete our knowledge of the world we live in.
Answer:
Useful

• Helps one to draw conclusions from the past events
• Makes one’s life richer by giving meaning to the books one reads, the cities one visits or the music one hears
• Broadens one’s outlook by presenting to one an admixture of races, a mingling of cultures and a spectacular drama of the making of the modem world out of diverse forces
• Enables one to grasp one’s relationship with one’s past
• Preserves the traditional and cultural values of a nation, and serves as a beacon of light, guiding society in confronting various crises
• A bridge connecting the past with the present and pointing the road to the future

Not useful

• History is layered, tribes came and went, kings, priests, religions and ideologies came and went, what spot of geography remained eternal, unnecessarily causes a divide
• Politicians appeal (selectively) to history, to rouse the rabble, inflaming people to violence, and naturally, the other
• Side will retaliate, justifying their equally murderous actions with their version of history

Thinking about language

Question 1.
Read the following piece of information from The Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal.
Answer:
Egyptian is now extinct: its history dates from before the third millennium B.C., preserved in many hieroglyphic inscriptions and papyrus manuscripts. Around the second century A.D., it developed into a language known as Coptic. Coptic may still have been used as late as the early nineteenth century and is still used as a religious language by Monophysite Christians in Egypt.

Question 2.
What do you think are the reasons for the extinction of languages?
Answer:

• With increasing disuse, not because the peoples themselves, with their cultural traditions, have dwindled away, but because the language has been overwhelmed by a more dominant one.
• A language needs a nation (in the broad sense of people conscious of a group identity) that sees it as ‘its own’failing this the language dies out
• A language’s social status determines its life or death. If its speakers turn away more and more from using a language that is perceived as conferring real benefits in everyday life, it dies out
• The introduction of a non-indigenous language that takes over all social functions
• The disappearance of a population that speaks that language
• Parents do not pass on a language to their children
• Population dislocation or relocation due to events like war, famine, earthquakes
• The emergence of a new world language
• The emergence of supra linguistic functions like banking information in another language

Question 3.
Do you think it is important to preserve languages?
Answer:
Language diversity is essential to the human heritage. Each and every language embodies the unique cultural wisdom of a group of people. The loss of any language is thus a loss for all humanity. It is essential to preserve languages in order to preserve fundamental human rights, and for the protection of minority groups. Language is an important marker of identity. Even when speaking the same language, social groups differentiate themselves by their dialect or the way they talk.

So, language offers a way of stating a resistance to cultural homogenisation. A native language goes beyond differentiation. It represents a whole cultural history. The need to define one’s roots, especially in the face of what can look like foreign hegemony, is powerful. ‘Linguistic diversity’ is a benchmark of cultural diversity. The death of a language is symptomatic of cultural death: a way of life disappears with the death of a language. Language is a cultural resource, and must be transmitted to children.

Question 4.
In what ways do you think we could help prevent the extinction of languages and dialects?
Answer:
Although approximately 6,000 languages still exist, many are under threat. There is an imperative need for language documentation, new methods, new policy initiatives and safeguarding strategies to enhance the vitality of these languages. The cooperative efforts of language communities, language professionals, NGOs and governments will be indispensable in countering this threat.

There is a pressing need to build support for language communities in their efforts to establish meaningful new roles for their endangered languages. One important issue in preserving a language is how widely it is used in written form. Prerequisites for the written use of a language are orthography development, literature production, and the teaching of mother-tongue literacy.

Working with words

Question 1.
Given below are some interesting combinations of words. Explain why they have been used together.
Answer:

• ghostly dust devils – a dust devil is a whirlwind into which dust and debris gets caught up, making it visible and making it look like a ghost
• desert sky – blank/lifeless sky
• stunning artefacts – breathtakingly beautiful objects made by humans
• funerary treasures – jewels or precious objects relating to or suitable for a burial or funeral
• scientific detachment – methodical aloofness
• dark-bellied clouds – dark, bulging clouds
• casket grey – ash-coloured like a coffin
• eternal brilliance – endless lustre/radiance
• ritual resins – resins used in a system of rites
• virtual body – figure of the body generated by the computer
• The above descriptions are very vivid and make understanding/visualisation better.

Question 2.
Here are some commonly used medical terms. Find out their meanings.
(a) CT scan – A CT (computerised tomography) scanner is a medical imaging method employing tomography where digital geometry processing is used to generate a three-dimensional image of the internals of an object from a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken around a single axis of rotation.

(b) MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic medical imaging technique utilising the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance. MRI is viewed by many as the most versatile, powerful and sensitive diagnostic imaging modality available. Its medical importance can be summarised briefly as having the ability to non- invasively generate thin sections, functional images of any part of the body at any angle and direction in a relatively short period of time.

(c) tomography – production of body image; the technique of using ultrasound, gamma rays, or X-rays to produce a focussed image of the structures across a specific depth within the body, while blurring details at other depths

(d) autopsy – examination to find cause of death: the medical examination of a dead body in order to establish the cause and circumstances of death

(e) dialysis – medical filtering process: the process of filtering the accumulated waste products of metabolism from the blood of a patient whose kidneys are not functioning properly, using a kidney machine

(f) ECG – an electrocardiogram is a graphic produced by an electrocardiograph, which records the changes in the electrical current in the heart during heartbeats in the form of a continuous strip graph. The results of the ECG are used to tell whether the heart is performing normally or suffering from abnormalities.

(g) post mortem – examination made after death to determine the cause of death

(h) angiography – Angiography is the X-ray (radiographic) study of the blood vessels. Angiography is used to detect abnormalities, including narrowing or blockages in the blood vessels throughout the circulatory system and in some organs.

The procedure is commonly used to diagnose heart disease; to evaluate kidney function and detect kidney cysts or tumours; to map renal anatomy in transplant donors; to detect an abnormal bulge of an artery that can rupture leading to haemorrhage, tumour, blood clot, or abnormal tangles of arteries and veins in the brain; and to diagnose problems with the retina of the eye.

(i) biopsy – removal of living tissue: the removal of a sample of tissue from a living person for laboratory examination

Things to do

Question 1.
The constellation Orion is associated with the legend of Osiris, the god of the afterlife. Find out the astronomical
descriptions and legends associated with the following.
Answer:
(i) Ursa Major (Saptarishi mandala) – This is also known as the Great Bear, because of its shape, recognised early on by Romans and Native Americans. In Hindu mythology each of the stars represents one of the Saptarshis or seven sages.

(ii) Polaris (Dhruva tara) – Also known as the North star or pole star, the brightest star in the Ursa Minor constellation. In ancient Hindu literature Polaris was given the name Dhruva or immovable, fixed in one place.

(iii) Pegasus (Winged horse) – A bright constellation in the northern sky. Pegasus was depicted as a white winged stallion, one of the children of the Greek god Poseidon.

(iv) Sirius (Dog star) – From the ancient greek term for glowing, one of the brightest stars in the Earth’s night sky.
This is presented as Orion’s dog, who hunts for the Greek god Zeus.

(v) Gemini (Mithuna) – One of the zodiac constellations. The Latin word Gemini translates to twins, representing the pair Castor and Pollux, sons of the Spartan Queen Leda. Similarly, Mithuna in Indian astrology stands for couple or union.

Question 2.
Some of the leaves and flowers mentioned in the passage for adorning the dead are willow, olive, celery, lotus, cornflower. Which of these are common in our country?
Answer:
The Indian willow, lotus, and cornflower are found in several places across the country.

Question 3.
Name some leaves and flowers that are used as adornments in our country.
Answer:
Leaves used for adornment in India include mango leaves, banana leaves, tulsi leaves, banyan leaves, peepal tree leaves and so on. Flowers used for adornment include marigolds, roses, lotus flowers, jasmine flowers, hibiscus flowers and so on.

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