Egypt: unearthed mummies with golden tongues
Archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities have discovered golden-tongued mummies during excavations in al-Manufiyya Governorate.
The discovery was made during an expedition in the area of the Quweisna Necropolis, a burial site that contains hundreds of tombs from different periods of Egypt's history. Excavations have revealed a number of mummies, some of which have a golden tongue or amulet placed in the mouth of the deceased. This practice was intended to ensure that the deceased person could still communicate in the afterlife and talk with the ancient Egyptian god Osiris.
Archaeologists have already found similar burial sites across Egypt: for example in February 2021 at the Taposiris Magna temple in Alexandria or in December 2021 at the Oxyrhynchus archaeological site, near today's city of El Bahnasa.
According to Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the discevered mummies are in a poor state of preservation. They also found that many mummies were covered with thin sheets of gold and placed in wooden coffins.
The team also found clay pots, gold artefacts in the shape of beetles and flowers, as well as numerous stone amulets and burial vessels.
Ayman Ashmawi, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities said:
the recently discovered part of the necropolis presents different architectural styles. The first studies on the burial site, on the mummies and on the funerary objects indicate that this necropolis was used during three different periods: the late ancient Egyptian period, the Ptolemaic period and in part also during the Roman period
Previous excavations in Quweisna have revealed hundreds of graves, stone coffins and a huge black granite coffin manufactured for an important priest.
