Archaeologists have discovered mummies with thirteen golden tongues in Oxyrhynchus. Moreover, one of them had two golden tongues at the same time.
Archaeologists have discovered thirteen mummies with gold tongues and fingernails in a cemetery in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. The human remains date from the Ptolemaic period (ca. 304-30 BC), Living Science reports.
In total, archaeologists discovered 52 mummies and 13 gold tongues. Remarkably, one mummy had two gold tongues and another mummy had nails covered with gold plates.
Archaeologists had previously found sixteen golden tongues at Oxyrhynchus. Gold was believed to be the “flesh of the gods,” so the ancient Egyptians placed such tongues in mummies to help the dead speak in the afterlife.
Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, does not rule out that gold tongues “could have been fashionable for an embalming house in the area.”
During the excavations, archaeologists also found 29 amulets. Some of them take the form of scarab beetles, as do Egyptian gods, including Horus, Thoth and Isis. Some of them are shaped like several gods together.
The excavations also uncovered murals, including an image of the tomb’s owner named “Wen-Nefer” accompanied by several Egyptian gods.
Another ceiling painting shows the sky goddess Nut surrounded by stars. There is also a painting of a boat depicting various gods.
As for the paintings, their quality is truly exquisite and the freshness of the colors is simply astonishing,” said Francesco Tiradritti, an Egyptologist at the D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy, about the find.
