Archaeologists have just discovered a special, never-before-seen Egyptian mummy buried with a golden tongue.

Two millennia ago, ancient Egyptians were buried in the temple of Taposiris Magna outside Alexandria. Their organs were removed and their bodies were wrapped in linen.

2,000-year-old mummy has a golden tongue. Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

However, according to Business Insider, one mummy was granted a great honor: priests and embalmers placed a golden tongue-shaped amulet in its mouth so that the dead could speak to the gods, like Osiris in the afterlife.

The Golden Tongue Mummy is among countless mummies recently discovered in Alexandria, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.

The excavation team of Egyptian and Dominican archaeologists found 16 burial pits carved into the rock beneath the temple.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the mummies inside were “in a poor state of preservation”, adding that this was typical of the mummification process in Greek and Roman times.

The Golden Tongue Mummy is not the only special mummy discovered recently.

According to Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martínez, who led the expedition, two of the most important mummies the team found were buried in decorative cardboard, a material made of papyrus and linen that the Egyptians used to wrap mummies from head to toe. .

Mummy with a death mask. Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

The carton of one mummy represents the god Osiris, while the other is decorated with a crown of horns, a cobra on the forehead and a necklace in the shape of a falcon’s head, which symbolizes Horus, the Sun god of Egypt.

Two mummies were also buried with scrolls that are currently being deciphered.

Archaeologists found another mummy wearing a death mask, helping guide the soul of the deceased into the body and protecting it in the afterlife.

Marble human head. Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

The expedition also unearthed eight marble heads dating to the Greek and Roman periods, said Khaled Abo El Hamd, head of the Alexandria Ministry of Antiquities. The heads were sculpted to resemble their owners, who may have been buried in the temple.

This is not the first time that the Temple of Taposiris Magna, or “the great temple of Osiris,” has excited archaeologists. Martínez believes that the legendary Queen Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt who died in 30 BC, was buried here.

In July, Martínez found a mummy that had been gilded before being buried around the time of Cleopatra’s reign. The gold coverings show that these two peoples played an important role in ancient society. Martínez also found coins minted during the reign of Cleopatra at the site.

But according to former Egyptian Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass, who worked with Martínez for a decade, there is “no evidence” that Cleopatra was buried at Taposiris Magna.

 

“I now believe that Cleopatra was buried in a mausoleum that she built next to her palace, which was underwater,” Hawass told LiveScience. The queen’s tomb will never be found.”

Archaeologists discovered Queen Cleopatra’s palace more than four decades ago, not far from the eastern port of Alexandria.