ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT — The New York Times reports that archaeologists digging at an ancient Egyptian site called Taposiris Magna, in western Alexandria, unearthed 16 burial sites in tombs cut into rock, with one containing a mummy bearing a tongue made of gold.
The team speculates that after the person's tongue was removed during embalming, it was replaced with the golden object so the deceased could speak to Osiris in the afterlife.
Osiris is the Egyptian "Lord of the Underworld" and judge of the dead — one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt.
The scientists estimate the mummy to be around 2,000 years old, which would place it in the time long after the time of the pyramids, and in the time of the Greek and Roman empires.
According to egyptologists, if individuals encountered Osiris, god of the underworld, in his domain, they would have needed a way to communicate with the deity.
The team is unsure whether the mummy had a speech impediment in life and why exactly the artificial tongue was made out of gold.
