AN ANCIENT mummy with a golden tongue has been unearthed in Egypt.
The expensive-tongued man was buried at a 2,000 year old site associated with rulers who thought jewellery enabled the dead to talk in the afterlife.
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Experts believe the gold tongue was given to the ancient Egyptian man after death in an attempt to help him speak to Osiris, the Egyptian god of death.
His real tongue was likely removed during the embalming process.
Ancient Egyptians believed Osiris ruled the underworld and judged the souls of spirits who entered it.
That’s why they thought having the ability to speak to this god and ask for mercy would help people successfully enter the afterlife.
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Archaeologists digging at the ancient site of Taposiris Magna discovered 16 burials in rock cut tombs.
The man with the golden tongue was one of these burials but the other 15 proved to be very interesting too.
Stone funeral masks were found on the mummies inside their rocky tombs.
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These help to depict what the people may have looked like when they were alive.
University of Santo Domingo researchers have been working at this particular ancient Egyptian site for almost 10 years.
They’ve previously found coins depicting Queen Cleopatra VII’s face and statues and a temple connected to King Ptolemy IV.
The site of Taposiris Magna was said to have been established as a city in ancient Egypt by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus sometime between 280 and 270 BC.
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These rulers could have reigned over the 16 ancient people found in the rock cut tombs.
The man with the gold tongue was the most well preserved of all the mummies and his skeleton could still be made out.
However, lots of the other had decayed away.
Precious artefacts help to give an idea of who these people were.
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One was buried with a horned crown that had a snake on the forehead.
Others were buried with trinkets, jewellery and statues.
This suggests the people were of some importance and may have been fairly wealthy when they were alive.
A brief history of Ancient Egypt
Here’s everything you need to know…
- The Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilisation who at one point owned a huge portion of the globe
- The civilisation began about 5,000 years ago when ancient humans began building villages along the River Nile
- It lasted for about 3,000 years and saw the building of complex cities centuries ahead of their time – as well as the famous Great Pyramids
- The Ancient Egyptians were experts at farming and construction
- They invented a solar calendar, and one of the world’s earliest writing systems: The hieroglyph
- The Egyptians were ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs
- Religion and the afterlife were a huge part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They had over 2,000 gods
- Pharaohs built huge elaborate tombs to be buried in, some of which were pyramids – at the time among the largest buildings in the world
- The Egyptians believed in life after death, and important people’s corpses were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife
- The Ancient Egyptian empire fell due to a mix of factors, including wars with other empires and a 100-year period of drought and starvation
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In other archaeology news, ancient humans regularly bred with Neanderthals, an analysis of 45,000-year-old Neanderthal teeth has revealed.
The last meal of a 240million year old sea monster has been revealed by archaeologists.
And, the earliest art ever created on the British Isles has been discovered – dating as far back as 23,000 years ago.
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