Mummies with Golden Tongues
Archaeologists have been uncovering mummies with gold tongues in the last year.
A mummy with a gold-foil-wrapped tongue was unearthed in Alexandria, Egypt in early 2021. Two more were recently found in Minya, Egypt. The reason seems to be Osiris.
Osiris, also called Usir, was the Egyptian god responsible for both fertility and the embodiment of the dead. The origins of the myth are unclear, though it is thought he was originally a local god in Busiris. However, by 2400 BCE he was enormously important to the religion of the ancient Egyptians and had taken on his duel role.
Experts think it was believed that these mummified mortals would need golden tongues in order to be allowed to speak in Osiris’ court in the afterlife.
The Alexandria mummy was found during an exploration involving 16 burial shafts at Taposiris Magna Temple. The poorly preserved mummies found there are dated back to the Greek and Roman eras.
Kathleen Martinez, who led that University of Santo Domingo archaeological mission, believes two mummies found are particularly important. Osiris is prominent in the decorations of one while the other wore a crown adorned with horns and a cobra. The latter mummy also wore a necklace with a falcon head — a symbol for the Egyptian god Horus.
