Who discovered Tut’s tomb and what problems did he face with regard to Tut’s mummy? Why did Zahi Hawass say, “The Mummy is in very bad condition because of what Carter did in 1922”?
A British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922. Carter worked for months. He carefully recorded Tut’s treasures. Then he began investigating his three nested coffins. He found a shroud adorned with garlands of willow, olive and lotus leaves. Perhaps Tut was buried in March or April. Carter ran into trouble when he reached the mummy. The ritual resin had hardened. It cemented Tut to the bottom of his solid gold coffin. No amount of force could separate them. Then Carter tried another way of loosening the resins. He placed the mummy in the blazing sunshine. But the move didn’t work. At last, he decided to cut the mummy free from the resins. The resins had to be chiselled away beneath the limbs and the trunk. In his defence, Carter had little choice. Had he not cut the mummy free, thieves would have run away with the gold.
Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, blamed Carter for “the bad condition” of the mummy. His chiselling did the damage. After 40 years Tut’s mummy was X-rayed. It was found that his breast-bone and front ribs were missing.
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