Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues by A. R. Williams
Quick answer: Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues by A. R. Williams, CBSE Class 11 Hornbill: the 2005 CT scan of Tutankhamun, Howard Carter's damage, Tut's family, themes and exam answers.
On 5 January 2005 a pharaoh who has lain in the Valley of the Kings for three thousand years is slid into a CT scanner in a trailer, and the scanner stops because sand has clogged a fan.
A. R. Williams wrote this for National Geographic in 2005; Class 11 Hornbill prints it as chapter 3.
The chapter in brief
Tutankhamun was the last heir of a powerful dynasty. His grandfather Amenhotep III ruled almost four decades; Amenhotep IV renamed himself Akhenaten, moved the capital to Amarna and replaced Amun with the sun disc Aten. After a shadowy Smenkhkare, the boy Tutankhaten became Tutankhamun, restored the old gods, and died after about nine years. Howard Carter found the tomb in 1922; because resins had cemented the body to its coffin, he cut the mummy apart at the joints to recover the gold.
In 1968 an anatomy professor X-rayed the mummy and found the breastbone and front ribs missing, feeding murder theories. Zahi Hawass of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities led the 2005 scan, which produced 1,700 digital images, and the mummy went back into its coffin by night. As the workers left, the clouds cleared and Orion, linked by the Egyptians to Osiris, stood over the tomb.
The people in it
Three thousand years of cast.
- Tutankhamun: teenage pharaoh buried with gold, board games, a bronze razor and linen underwear.
- Howard Carter: the finder of 1922 who cut the body apart to save the ornaments.
- Zahi Hawass: the official who admitted sleepless nights before the scan.
- Akhenaten: the heretic king whose revolution set up Tut's crisis.
Themes and meaning
Exam readings are science and history working together, the ethics of disturbing the dead, and each generation reading the same body with new tools. The sharper point is that Carter is not the villain class debates make him; the same reverence for the afterlife that filled the tomb with treasure is what forced the damage.
The craft: two clocks running at once
Williams intercuts the 2005 scan with the 1922 excavation, so the reader gets a mystery, a suspect and a forensic examination in a few pages. The turn is the scanner's breakdown, a small humiliation that raises the stakes on a routine task. The murder rumour stays open, which is honest journalism.
For the exam
Quick material for Class 11 tests.
- Word meanings: forensic, scientific investigation of evidence; resins, sticky substances used in embalming; funerary, connected with burial; scudded, moved quickly; adornments, ornaments; eerie, strangely frightening.
- Character sketch of Howard Carter in 60 words: A determined British archaeologist, Carter searched the Valley of the Kings for years before finding Tut's tomb in 1922. Faced with a body cemented by hardened resin, he chose to cut it apart to recover its ornaments, defending the decision as protection against tomb robbers. Williams presents him as thorough and practical, a man whose methods later science had to correct.
- Q: Why did Carter cut the body apart? A: Hardened resins glued the mummy to its coffin; he chiselled it free to recover the gold, arguing thieves would otherwise destroy it.
- Q: What did the 2005 scan achieve? A: About 1,700 harmless images of the whole mummy, giving forensic evidence Carter's damage had left unsettled.
- Q: Why does the chapter end with Orion? A: The Egyptians linked Orion to the soul of Osiris; its appearance gives the boy king a symbolic watch.
- Summary in 100 words: Tutankhamun, the last of a powerful dynasty, ruled for about nine years and died young for unknown reasons. Howard Carter found his treasure-filled tomb in 1922 but, finding the body glued by hardened resins, cut it apart to recover the gold. A 1968 X-ray showed missing breastbone and ribs and fuelled murder theories. On 5 January 2005 Zahi Hawass led a CT scan of the mummy outside the tomb. After a breakdown caused by sand, the scanner produced 1,700 images that promised answers. As the mummy was returned, the sky cleared and Orion stood above the tomb.
What writers can take from this
- Keep three dates straight: 1922 discovery, 1968 X-ray, 5 January 2005 CT scan.
- Present Carter's decision with his reasoning, then evaluate it; one-sided condemnation loses marks.
- Learn Tut's family order: Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun.
- Writers, intercut two timelines and let the modern one answer a question the older one raised.
- Use one humble object, the razor or the board games, to make a grand subject human.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a present-day expert examines an object from the past, cutting between the modern examination and the day the object was made or damaged. The two timelines must answer one shared question, and one question must remain open at the end.
Questions
What is the theme of Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues?
Modern science, here a CT scan in 2005, revisits ancient history and corrects the damage of earlier methods. The chapter also raises the ethics of disturbing the dead, the Egyptians' reverence for the afterlife, and the human side of a king buried with everyday objects.
Who was Zahi Hawass and what was his role?
Secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, he led the January 2005 CT scan of Tutankhamun's mummy, an examination meant to gather forensic evidence without further harming the body.
What were the results of Tut's CT scan?
About 1,700 digital X-ray images of the entire mummy, including skull, neck vertebrae and hand, allowing specialists to study his age and physical condition and to test theories about how he died.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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