A New Discovery: Mummies with Gold Tongues

Many ancient mummies with solid-gold tongues in their mouths have been discovered by archaeologists in Egypt. At the Quweisna necropolis in the central Nile Delta, around 40 miles north of Cairo, preserved bodies dating from 300 and 640 BCE were found.

According to Dr. Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Archaeology, experts examining tombs at the location discovered many mummies with gold chips shaped like human tongues in their mouths.

According to experts, during the embalming procedure, a piece of gold imitating the organ was used in place of the deceased’s actual tongues so that the departed could communicate with Osiris, the ancient Egyptian “Lord of the Underworld.”

According to Waziri, several mummies had gold on the bone directly underneath the linen coverings used during the mummification procedure. The mummies were in bad condition. At the ancient cemetery, gold chips fashioned into scarab beetles and lotus flowers were discovered, as were funerary amulets, earthenware, glues and tar used in the embalming process, the remains of human-shaped wooden coffins, and several copper nails. The Quweisna necropolis was discovered in 1989, prompting multiple rounds of excavations over the next three decades, as per The Post.
The golden-tongued mummies were uncovered in a freshly discovered extension of the cemetery, which housed cadavers from three separate historical periods.

Dr. Ayman Ashmawi, chairman of the Egyptian archaeology sector at the Supreme Council of Archaeology, told that each burial level revealed evidence of different rites and methods of burying the mummies. This is not the first time that expensive metal-encrusted mummies have been uncovered in Egypt.

According to a New York Post report, in 2021, archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old skull with a tongue-shaped gold chip in its gaping mouth at Taposiris Magna, a site near Alexandria known as the “Great Tomb of Osiris.”