Archaeologists in Egypt have actually found 13 ancient mummies with gold tongues and nails in a cemetery at the website of Oxyrhynchus.

The group made the finds when they dug to the bottom of a burial shaft, exposing a hall with 3 chambers that held lots of mummies. The human stays date to the Ptolemaic duration (circa 304 to 30 B.C.), a time when a dynasty came down from among Alexander the Great‘s generals ruled Egypt, according to 2 declarations launched by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Archaeologists had formerly uncovered 16 gold tongues at Oxyrhynchus. The ancient Egyptians put gold tongues in mummies with the intent of assisting the departed speak in the afterlife, and since they thought that gold was “the flesh of the gods,” Esther Pons Mellado and Maite Mascortco-directors of the Spanish-Egyptian historical objective at Oxyrhynchus, informed Live Science previously this year. The very same group made the brand-new finds.

“The number of gold tongues here is high, which is interesting,” Salima Ikraman Egyptology teacher at the American University in Cairo who was not included with the current excavation, informed Live Science in an e-mail. “Possibly the bodies belong to higher elites that were associated with the temple and animal cults that proliferated in the area,” Ikram stated, noting it’s possible that gold tongues “might have been the vogue for the embalming house in the area.”

Related: Gold tongues discovered in 2,000-year-old mummies in Egypt

Throughout the most recent dig, the archaeologists likewise discovered 29 amulets with the mummies. Some amulets remain in the shape of scarab beetles, as the ancient Egyptians associated scarabs with the motion of the sun throughout the sky. Other amulets remain in the shape of Egyptian divine beings, consisting of Horus, Thoth and Isis. A few of them have kinds that integrate several divine beings together.

The excavation likewise exposed wall paintings, consisting of one that illustrates a burial place owner called “Wen-Nefer,” who is revealed being accompanied by a number of Egyptian divine beings. Another painting on the ceiling portrays the sky goddess Nut surrounded by the stars. There is likewise a painting of a boat that has actually numerous divine beings portrayed on it.