As part of our Unit of Inquiry, grade 6 watch part of a documentary produced by National Geographic entitled King Tut’s Final Secrets. In the film, a group of archeologists seeks to answer two questions;
1.) How did the boy king really die? Was he really murdered, and if so, by whom? If he wasn’t really murdered, how did he really die? The archeologists used modern CAT scan technology to look inside Tut’s mummy.
2.) Is there a scientific explaination for the curse of Tut’s Tomb? A few days after Howard Carter unearthed the tomb, his backer Lord Carnarvon, who had joined Carter for his discover, died of a mysterious illness. The media at the time believed it was the result of a curse put on the tomb, but these archeologists examined whether in opening the tomb, Carter released some kind of airborne pathogeon, and it was that pathogeon, and not the curse, which led to Cararvon’s untimely death.
Fascinating stuff. It is really amazing to see how science and technology can inform our understanding of history.
We will get the chance to watch the reminding half of the film next week.