Egypt Unearths Mummies with Golden Tongues in Menoufia

On Thursday, an Egyptian archaeological mission announced that it had unearthed mummies with golden tongues at Quweisna necropolis in Menoufia governorate.

The discovery was made during excavations carried out in the central Nile Delta governorate in the past three months at the necropolis.

The mission also found a collection of clay pots, golden sheets in the shape of scarabs and lotus flowers, as well as a number of funerary stony amulets, scarabs, and vessels from the late ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods.

“The mummies with golden tongues are in a bad conservation condition,” said Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Waziri added that skeletons remains of mummies covered with golden sheets, wooden anthropoid coffins, and copper traces that were once used in making coffins were also found.

Ayman Ashmawi, head of the ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector, said that the newly discovered part of the necropolis has a different architectural style.

Ashmawi explained that this discovered part is made of mudbrick and composed of a main vaulted hall with three vaulted burial chambers and a burial shaft with two side chambers.

“Early studies on the burials, the mummies, and the funerary collection found indicate that this necropolis was used during three different periods: the late ancient Egyptian, the Ptolemaic, and part of the Roman period,” he added.

Quweisna necropolis, which is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, houses a collection of tombs and burial chambers from several archaeological eras.

This collection reveals the changes in the architectural style of tombs and the burying methods used in the different ages.

Quweisna is also home to a very distinguished necropolis for sacred birds.

During the past archaeological seasons, the mission has succeeded in uncovering a collection of tombs, remains of buildings, mummies, coffins, and sarcophagi, including a huge anthropoid sarcophagus carved in black granite for one of the senior priests of Atribis (today's Banha in Qalioubiya governorate north of Cairo).

Translated by Hassanain Tayea