Cool Finds

Ancient Egyptians Believed That These Newly Discovered Gold Tongues Allowed the Dead to Communicate in the Afterlife

Excavations at Marina el-Alamein, an archaeological site west of Alexandria, unearthed about two dozen of the rare artifacts, including one shaped like the Eye of Horus

Meilan Solly | Senior Associate Digital Editor, History

July 15, 2026 1:31 p.m.

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To prepare their loved ones for the afterlife, ancient Egyptians sometimes placed tongue-shaped pieces of gold foil in the mouths of the deceased. Prized as the “flesh of the gods,” this precious metal was believed to lend the dead a voice as they prepared to face the judgment of the god Osiris, who could either grant a petitioner entry to the afterlife or condemn their soul to eternal darkness.

Excavations at Marina el-Alamein, an archaeological site just over 60 miles west of the ancient Egyptian capital, Alexandria, have revealed about two dozen of these gold tongues. According to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, one of the objects is shaped like the Eye of Horus, a symbol associated with healing and protection.

“Gold tongues are a well-documented feature of some burials dating to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in Egypt,” Hesham Hussein, undersecretary for Lower Egypt and Sinai archaeology, tells Live Science’s Owen Jarus. “They are generally interpreted as symbolic funerary amulets intended to enable the deceased … to communicate and recite sacred formulas in the next world.”

In recent years, archaeologists have uncovered mummies with gold tongues in the Taposiris Magna temple outside of Alexandria and the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, about 200 miles southeast of the newest find. The practice stems from spell 158 in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which calls for a “golden collar … to be set on the throat of the deceased on the day of interment.”

This collar (or tongue) “ensures that the deceased has the ability to breathe and speak, as well as to eat and drink, in the afterlife,” Lorelei H. Corcoran, director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis, told the New York Times’ Jacey Fortin in 2021. “It may be conflated with the Greek funerary practice of placing a coin on or in the mouth of the deceased as payment for the ferryman, Charon, who transported the deceased across the River Styx to the underworld.”

At least one outside expert consulted by Live Science remains unconvinced that all of the newly discovered amulets are, in fact, gold tongues. Attilio Mastrocinque, an archaeologist formerly with the University of Verona in Italy, points out that one of the pieces features a depiction of a wheat ear, a symbol often associated with fertility in the ancient world. Mastrocinque believes that the object bears marked similarities to silver wheat ears recovered from Roman sites across Europe.

The archaeologists who unearthed the gold tongues found them while excavating 18 newly discovered tombs, 11 of which were carved deep into the ground. The remaining seven were built out of limestone on the surface of the ancient site.

Many of the burials are exceptionally well preserved, with some seemingly remaining untouched for thousands of years. Other finds revealed by the excavation include a plaster sphinx statue; a limestone tombstone that features a man cradling a bird; and an unfinished sculpture that appears to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. (Greek culture and religion enjoyed a resurgence in Ptolemaic Egypt.)

In a paper presented at a 2015 symposium on Mediterranean archaeology, Krzysztof Jakubiak and Maria Wardzyńska—both graduate students at the University of Warsaw at the time—described Marina el-Alamein as “a rich settlement whose prosperity had been built with a multicultural and multiethnic community.” Traders, merchants and sailors came to the town from far-flung locales, including Greece, Cyprus and Asia Minor. The diversity of these new arrivals is evidenced by Marina el-Alamein’s unique architecture, which bears similarities to surviving structures across the Mediterranean.

The necropolis that served as a central feature of the settlement shows clear signs of both Greek and Egyptian influence. The burials themselves, however, “especially those connected with mummification, are typical of Egyptian funerary practice and ideas on the afterlife,” Jakubiak and Wardzyńska wrote.

Meilan Solly | Read More

Meilan Solly is a senior associate digital editor at Smithsonian magazine, where she oversees the online history section. Solly's specialties are Tudor England, medieval Europe and World War II.