Archeologists have uncovered tongues and nails made of gold in an ancient Egyptian tomb.
The objects were found at the Al-Bahnasa archaeological site, which is located in the Minya Governorate.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the rare find in a Facebook post on Saturday (14 December).
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Officials estimate that the artifacts date back to the Ptolemaic era when Macedonian Greeks controlled Egypt from 305 BC to 30 BC.
The area is home to the remains of the ancient city Oxyrhynchus, a historic and significant settlement during ancient Egypt’s Greco-Roman period, as reported by Need To Know.
In a press release translated from Arabic to English, the tourism ministry said that “various amulets and jars” depicting gods such as Ra, Isis, Horus, and Osiris were found in the tombs, in addition to 13 human tongues made of gold.
These are relatively rare discoveries, but some have been previously found at other archaeological sites in Egypt.
Experts think the ancient Egyptians may have placed gold tongues on some human remains in the belief that they would enable the spirits of the deceased to communicate with Osiris, the god of the underworld, and help them cross into the afterlife.
During its excavations earlier this month, the archaeological mission also discovered colourful writings in the tombs, such as inscriptions and engravings of ritual scenes.
Esther Pons Mellado and Maite Mascort, co-directors of the Spanish side of the archaeological mission, said: “The Egyptian people deposited the golden tongues on the tongue to restore vital functions to the dead and also so that the body remained intact in the afterlife.
“For the Egyptians, gold was the flesh of the gods.”
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