In the English-speaking world, referring to someone as silver-tongued suggests a smooth and cunning speaker. More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians went one better by placing a golden tongue in the mouth of the deceased so that they would be able to speak in the afterlife.

Researchers excavating a cemetery in the Oxyrhynchus archaeological site, known in Arabic as Al-Bahnasa, have found new evidence of the practice, unearthing 13 mummies with gold tongues. The joint Spanish-Egyptian mission found the gold tongues after reaching the bottom of a burial shaft that led to three chambers containing dozens of mummies.

Gold tongues have been found at a couple of Egyptian sites over the past five years. Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The tombs and their contents have been dated to the Ptolemaic period, roughly 330 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E., during which time a dynasty descended from Alexander the Great’s generals ruled the region.

In addition to the gold tongues, archaeologists from the University of Barcelona and the Institute of the Ancient Middle East found detailed wall paintings and amulets carved in the shape of various deities including Isis, Horus, and Jehuti. One of the wall paintings showed the sky goddess Nut surrounded by stars. Another presented several deities on a boat of the dead.

A range of amulets and scarabs were found at Oxyrhynchus. Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

“During the past excavation season, the mission was able to uncover a number of graves dating back to the Greek and Roman times,” the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement. “The mission will continue its work on the site to uncover more secrets of this remarkable archaeological area.”

Ancient Egyptians believed gold was a divine material, a skin almost, and researchers have found several golden tongues in recent years. In 2021, archaeologists working on the outskirts of the city of Alexandria found two people buried with tongues made of the precious metal. Later that year, the team from the University of Barcelona found three more gold tongues at Oxyrhynchus in a tomb that was completely sealed.

Golden tongues found in an Egyptian burial chamber. Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Previously, the Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission had discovered a one-room burial chamber built out of glazed limestone that dated to the 26th dynasty (664 B.C.E. to 525 B.C.E.).

Located about 140 miles south of Cairo, the Oxyrhynchus site was first excavated at the end of the 19th century by British archaeologists. Due to its climate and relative anonymity, it has proven a unique preserver of the ancient world, particularly in terms of papyri. Eighty large volumes of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have been published.