The Gold Tongues of Oxyrhynchus: How to Talk to a God
Archaeologists from the University of Barcelona excavating the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus have uncovered a cache of mummies dating to the Ptolemaic period. Some of the mummies, which seem to have escaped the attentions of looters down the centuries, have golden tongues.
Oxyrhynchus, known today as Al-Bahnasa, has been under excavation since 1992, producing a steady stream of finds and new archaeology for more than 30 years. In addition to the mummies, ritual texts relating to the death rites of the Egyptians have been found, as well as wall paintings of Egypt’s religious figures.
The University of Barcelona reports the discovery of a rectangular shaft, made of stone and used for burial. At the shaft’s end was a tomb complex. Decorated walls containing hieroglyphic inscriptions surround a central vaulted tomb made up of three chambers, containing some 300 mummies.
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Various gods of the afterlife are depicted on the walls, including Anubis, the jackal-headed god whose job it was to usher souls into the afterlife. The ceiling of the chamber prominently features Nut, goddess of the heavens and the universe, depicted as usual in a state of undress surrounded by her stars.
But what of the golden tongues of the 52 mummies which form the latest find? Such things are not unheard of in Ptolemaic Egypt, and the gilding was intended to allow those so treated to speak to the god Osiris in the afterlife.
The tomb complex has been identified as belonging to one Wen Nefer, who is shown on the wall decorations making offerings to the gods alongside his family. Many additional funerary offerings were made alongside the mummies, including a complete set of canopic jars holding the organs of a mummy on a sealed tomb. This mummy’s tongue was also gold.
The Ptolemies ruled Egypt for 300 years, but the kingdom was by this point in its last days as an independent state. Egypt was a shadow of its former self, with its monumental pyramid building far in its past, but it remained a great kingdom before eventually falling to the upstart Romans.
