The chilling mystery of the 13 golden-tongued mummies in Oxyrhynchus

(NLDO) - An extremely complex tomb conceals a series of mysterious mummies from Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, 13 mummies with tongues and some gold fingernails were excavated at the Oxyrhynchus site in the city of the same name in central Egypt, about 160 km from Cairo.

This series of mummies is hidden in a crypt as complex and mysterious as the way these ancient people were laid to rest.

The number of gold tongues and gold nails that Egyptian archaeologists collected from mummies in Oxyrhynchus - Photo: EGYPTIAN MINISTRY OF TOURISM AND ANTIQUES

According to Live Science, the research team found the mummies when they dug deep into the bottom of a known burial pit and discovered an underground corridor.

This corridor leads to three chambers containing dozens of mummies from the Ptolemaic dynasty (circa 304 to 30 BC), the dynasty under which one of Alexander the Great's generals ruled Egypt.

These are not the first mummies with golden tongues to be unearthed at Oxyrhynchus. Sixteen similar mummies with golden tongues have been found at the site before.

Scientists say behind this bizarre piece of jewelry lies a chilling belief.

The ancient Egyptians considered gold to be the "flesh of the gods," according to archaeologists Esther Pons Mellado and Maite Mascort, co-directors of the Spanish-Egyptian archaeological mission at Oxyrhynchus.

So they fitted golden tongues to the dead in the belief that this would give these nobles the privilege of speaking in the afterlife .

Several mummies with gold tongues have been excavated in other locations before, but only sporadically and identified as belonging to high-ranking officials of ancient Egypt.

Commenting on Live Science , Egyptology professor Salima Ikram said that the unusually large number of mummies with golden tongues at Oxyrhynchus may be due to the fact that this was a concentrated burial site for elite people related to the temple and animal cults that once flourished here.

Alternatively, there is another, simpler hypothesis: Gold tongues may have simply been a fad in the area at the time.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/bi-an-rung-minh-ve-13-xac-uop-co-luoi-bang-vang-o-oxyrhynchus-196241220104804006.htm