D anciennes momies aux langues en or déterrées en Égypte bbc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bbc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Egyptian mummies with golden tongues unearthed CNN 2/3/2021 By Lianne Kolirin, CNN
Archaeologists working at a burial site in Egypt have unearthed ancient mummies with golden tongues.
The team, headed by Kathleen Martinez of the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, were working at the Taposiris Magna Temple in western Alexandria when they discovered 16 burial shafts dating from the Greek and Roman eras.
A number of mummies in a poor state of preservation were found inside the shafts, according to a Facebook post by Egypt s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The archaeologists discovered remnants of gilded cartonnage a case made of tightly fitting layers of linen or papyrus glued together the ministry said, as well amulets of gold foil in the form of a tongue that were placed in the mouth of the mummy. This, they believe, was a special ritual to ensure the dead could speak to the court of the god Osiris in the afterlife.
Archaeologists Have Unearthed 2,000-Year-Old Mummies With Gold Tongues at an Ancient Temple in Egypt
The archaeologist who made the discovery is also searching for Cleopatra’s tomb at the same site.
February 3, 2021
A mummy discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, had its tongue encased in gold foil. Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Ancient Egyptians often buried their dead with objects that might help them in their journey to the afterlife, such as food, wine, and jewelry.
Now, archaeologists have found a group of 2,000-year-old mummies with gold-foil tongues at Taposiris Magna, in western Alexandria. The gilding of the organ was meant to allow the dead to speak before the court of the god Osiris, the lord of the underworld and the judge of the dead. Taposiris Magna, or “great tomb of Osiris,” was a city established in the third century B.C. by Pharoah Ptolemy II Philadelphus.