The Man with the Golden Tongue - An ancient Egyptian mummy discovery at Taposiris Magna

An ancient Egyptian mummy with a golden tongue has been unearthed by Archaeologists digging at the ancient site of Taposiris Magna, which means 'Great tomb of Osiris', why would the Ancient Egyptians remove his tongue and replace it with one made of Gold?

Archaeologists aren’t sure exactly when the man died, but they do no that the people who lived in this area of  Egypt were ruled either by the Ptolemies 304 B.C. to 30 B.C who were the descendants of one of Alexander the Great’s generals, or by the Roman Empire, which took over the country after the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C.

After the Ottoman Empire took occupation of the city in 1801, Governor Mohammed Ali of the Khedivate of Egypt decided to rebuild the modern city of Alexandria above the ruins of the old city. 

The golden tongued man was buried in this 2,000 year old site associated with rulers who thought jewelry enabled the dead to talk in the afterlife. His real tongue would have been removed during the embalming process. Gold was considered indestructible and heavenly, and represented immortality, Its divine origin is believed to be from the flesh of the gods and other deities that were believed to be golden. Because the man has a golden tongue he must have been of some importance and may have been fairly wealthy when he was alive

The golden  tongue would have replaced his own tongue in the hope that it would help the man to speak to the God Osiris when he stood before him in the Hall of Justice, where his heart would be weighed against a feather of Maat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of truth, morality, order, and justice  to see if he had lived an honest and just life and to help him speak to Osiris, the God who ruled the underworld and judged the souls of spirits who entered it. It is a possibility also that the man could of had a speech impediment, so by replacing his tongue, he would be able to speak fluently to the Gods in the hall of Justice

Archaeologists digging at the ancient site of Taposiris Magna also discovered 16 burials in rock cut tombs, stone funeral masks were found on some of the mummies in their tombs, along with jewelry

The detailed stone masks that were found on the bodies are still intact and enabled the archaeologists to have an impression what each person may have once looked like.

Funeral masks were created to help the Ba spirit to recognize its face  when they became separated at death. The Ba is the heavenly spirit and human personality in the spirit world, that has the body of a bird, and the head and features of the deceased, as a bird it can fly through the underworld. The Ba hovers around the tomb of the owner where the body lies motionless as if there is a hidden force to return repeatedly to see her body, which has been attached to her throughout her life on the earth.

 The skeleton with the gold tongue was found to be well-preserved, as its skull and most of its structure is still intact.