"Helped speak in the afterlife": 13 mummies with golden tongues discovered in Egypt (photos).

At a cemetery in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists discovered 13 mummies with golden tongues and nails. The human remains date back to the Ptolemaic period (around 304-30 BC), writes Live Science.

In total, archaeologists found 52 mummies and 13 golden tongues. Notably, one mummy had two golden tongues, while another had nails covered with gold plates.

Previously, in Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists had already uncovered 16 golden tongues. According to beliefs, gold was considered “the flesh of the gods,” which is why ancient Egyptians placed such tongues in mummies to assist the deceased in speaking in the afterlife.

Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, suggests that the golden tongues “might have been fashionable for the embalming house in this area.”

During the excavations, archaeologists also found 29 amulets. Some of these are shaped like scarab beetles and Egyptian deities, including Horus, Thoth, and Isis. Several of them feature designs that combine multiple deities.

The digs also revealed wall paintings, including one depicting the tomb owner named "Wen-Nefer," accompanied by several Egyptian deities.

Another ceiling painting portrays the sky goddess Nut surrounded by stars. There is also a depiction of a boat featuring several deities.

"As for the paintings, their quality is truly exceptional, and the freshness of the colors is simply astonishing," commented Francesco Tiradritti, an Egyptologist from the D'Annunzio University in Chieti-Pescara, Italy.

We also reported on the keeper of the royal dynasty and the daughter of the last queen Cleopatra. Cleopatra Selene II, the daughter of the famous Cleopatra VII and Roman general Mark Antony, lived an extraordinary life where the legacies of Egypt and Rome intertwined in fascinating ways.