She cautioned, however: 'I wouldn't hang all of this on one fragile foreskin. 'It might suggest that foreigners adopted Egyptian burial practices – and we know the Persians did,' she said. 'The lack of circumcision is interesting as it might tell us something about his ethnicity – Egyptians tended to be circumcised generally before the age of 13,' she told The Guardian. This may indicate that ancient Egyptians were only circumcised in adulthood, Saleem said.īut Salima Ikram, head of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, has another theory. That's unlike another high-ranking figure, King Amenhotep I, whom Saleem studied as well. Saleem said the scan suggests the boy was not circumcised. An insight into ancient Egyptian circumcisionĪnother unexpected finding is to do with the boy's penis. This may indicate that while the boy was high-ranking, he may not have been royal. 'Golden sandals were also found in the royal tombs e.g. 'The sandals were probably meant to enable the boy to walk out of the coffin,' Saleem said in a press release. Per the Book of the Dead, the deceased had to wear white sandals and be pious and clean before reciting its verses.

The boy was also found to be wearing white sandals in his grave. Archaeologists have unearthed 2,000-year-old mummies with golden tongues placed inside their mouths in northern Egypt, the antiquities ministry says. Milestone Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.The mummy was wearing sandals.

The ancient cemetery housed cadavers from three separate historical periods. The mummies with golden tongues were discovered in the freshly found extension of the ancient cemetery. Ayman Ashmawi, chairman of the Egyptian archaeology sector at the Supreme Council of Archeology said. Gold chips fashioned into scarab beetles and lotus flowers, earthenware, glues, and tar used in embalming, the remains of human-shaped wooden coffins, and several copper nails were all found at the ancient cemetery.Įach burial level unveils new evidence about the different rites and methods of burying the mummies, Dr. Quweisna necropolis was discovered in 1989 and prompted several rounds of excavations which unearthed a wide range of information about the ancient civilizations.Īccording to Waziri, several mummies which were discovered in bad condition had gold on the bone immediately beneath the linen wraps used during the mummification process.

Mummy with gold tongue