Archaeologists also discovered 402 figurines, amulets and fragments from one of the tombs, perfectly preserved because it had not been opened for 2,500 years.
The mummy with the golden tongue is considered well preserved, because the skull and most of the body’s structures are still intact. Archaeologists dug it out of the stone tomb and saw the golden object still glistening inside the mouth. They speculate that the real tongue was removed by the embalmers, but the golden tongue was placed in its place as part of a funeral ritual.
An archaeological mission from Spain has now been excavating beneath the city of El-Bahnasa, Egypt for 30 years and found many tombs from different dynasties and papyrus documents unearthed here. Until now, it still makes archaeological experts wonder. And recently, they unearthed two 2,500-year-old mummies with golden tongues.
According to The Times of Israel, two mummies – a man and a woman, were laid to rest in a limestone sarcophagus, at Oxyrhynchus. They died around 525 BC at the end of the Saite dynasty, which was the last dynasty of native Egyptians to rule their kingdom before the Persian conquest in the 6th century BC.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said that in ancient beliefs, golden tongues allowed the dead to speak with Osiris, the god of the underworld who judges visitors to the afterlife. While the 402 figurines, amulets and fragments found in the tombs were also impressive, it was the condition of the male mummy’s coffin that fascinated experts the most.
“This is very important because it is rare to find a completely sealed tomb like this,” said excavation director Esther Pons Melado.
One of the ancient skulls discovered had a golden tongue placed inside the mouth.
Inside the two tombs are the remains of a man and a woman, who died about 2,500 years ago, carefully embalmed. While the man’s mummy was extremely well preserved, the woman’s tomb was violated, causing extensive damage to her body. The mummies are believed to be of upper-middle-class Egyptians, as the mummification process and burial chamber appear to have been very elaborate.
According to Egypt Today, the Oxyrhynchus dig site is located in Minya Governorate about 100 miles from Cairo. Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary General Mustafa Waziri said the woman’s grave appeared to have been opened previously, while the man’s grave and coffin were completely untouched.
When the team opened the intact tomb, researchers found an exceptionally well-preserved male mummy and four classical vases used to retain the mummy’s internal organs. It also contains hundreds of small terracotta statues called faience, as well as a scarab and various amulets.
These figurines resemble Horus, an Ancient Egyptian god often represented as a man with the head of a falcon, whose duty was to protect the monarchy.
Researchers discovered 402 small Ushabti statues resembling the ancient god Horus. Ushabti is the name of a small statue buried with the dead in ancient Egyptian culture. These ushabti statues act as servants to serve the deceased when they return to the afterlife.
Hassan Amer, a professor at the Department of Greco-Roman Archeology at Cairo University who co-directed the excavation, said: “When we excavated the tomb of the male mummy, we discovered The vase contains 402 Ushabti statues, a set of small amulets and green beads.
Meanwhile, the woman’s coffin had been unsealed before, perhaps in ancient times, and valuables were stolen by tomb robbers. Apparently the grave robber did not dare to take away the woman’s tongue even though he opened her coffin, nor did he continue working on the immediate grave, where the man rested. Both mummies were placed in limestone coffins, with golden tongues still found inside the mummies’ mouths.
Researchers also found three other golden tongues outside tombs dating back to ancient Egypt’s Roman period, which began in 30 BC.
Previously, another mummy discovered at the Taposiris Magna site of ancient Egypt was also discovered with a golden tongue.
Researchers say the golden tongue may have been placed there so the deceased could talk to the gods in the afterlife. A statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said experts “found remains of gilded cardboard along with a gold leaf amulet in the form of a tongue placed in the mummy’s mouth in a special ceremony”.
