The Golden Tongue

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Ancient Egyptians may have had to plead their case for entrance into the afterlife, the Independent reported.

Egyptian archaeologists recently uncovered a number of tombs in the ancient cemetery of Qewaisna near the Egyptian capital of Cairo, containing mummies with golden tongues in their mouths.

Initially, in 2021 the archaeological mission found a skull with a tongue-shaped ornament. More digging unveiled other mummies with golden tongues, although their preservation was very poor, according to the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Archaeology, Mustafa Waziri.

Waziri added that researchers also found mummies coated with gold and other artifacts, including golden scarabs and lotus flowers.

Scholars believe the real tongues were removed during the embalming process and replaced with golden ones to allow the dead to speak to Osiris, the Ancient Egyptian “Lord of the Underworld.”

Meanwhile, other officials noted that the excavations at Qewaisna confirmed that the cemetery was used during different time periods. Archaeologists discovered that burial rituals differed at each level.

The Qewaisna site was first discovered in 1989 and subsequent excavations revealed mostly Ptolemaic- and Roman-period structures, covering from about 300 BCE to 640 CE.