In Marina el-Alamein, an ancient Egyptian site about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Alexandria, archaeologists have unearthed 18 tombs along the Mediterranean coast. The headline number is the most striking part: the tombs contained 24 gold “tongues,” artifacts likely placed into the mouths of mummies to help the deceased communicate in the afterlife.

That “mouthpiece for the next world” theme is exactly why this discovery matters beyond archaeology trivia. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says the tombs date to either the Ptolemaic period (322 to 30 B.C.) or the Roman period (30 B.C. to A.D. 395). Those dates are more than calendar trivia. They place the site in a long stretch where Egypt’s rulers and cultures were changing, first under the descendants of one of Alexander the Great’s generals during the Ptolemaic era, then under Rome after the death of Cleopatra VII, when Egypt became a Roman province.

Here’s what the excavation team reported about the tombs themselves. Eleven of the tombs were carved deep into the ground, while the seven others were located closer to the ground’s surface. Inside, the burial goods leaned heavily into what ancient Egyptians believed funerary objects should do: guide identity, preserve communication, and ritualize the transition from living life to post-death judgment. Most notably, the tombs held 24 gold “tongues” and an offering altar with a base designed to look like a false door.

The false door design is where symbolic meaning gets interesting. Hesham Hussein, undersecretary for Lower Egypt and Sinai archaeology at Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, explained in an email to Live Science that the false door was one of the oldest and most recognizable elements of ancient Egyptian funerary architecture. In traditional belief, it symbolized the interface between the worlds of the living and the dead, through which the deceased could spiritually receive offerings presented by the living. Hussein added that carving the false door symbolism into the altar suggests the symbolic meaning stayed important even as the architectural function evolved.

Gold “tongues” themselves are not brand-new as a concept. Gold tongues have been found in mummies at a number of ancient Egyptian sites. Hussein told Live Science they are generally interpreted as symbolic funerary amulets intended to enable the deceased to speak in the afterlife, particularly during the judgment before Osiris, or more broadly to communicate and recite sacred formulas in the next world. In other words, the 24 gold tongues are part of a well-documented funerary toolkit. What the Marina el-Alamein find changes is the concentration and context: multiple tombs at the same site, showing these objects living inside a specific Mediterranean town over multiple eras.

And there’s a second layer of “wait, what?” inside the gold tongues. One newly found tongue is shaped like the “Eye of Horus.” Horus, a falcon-headed god associated with the sky and warfare, appears frequently in Egyptian material culture, and artifacts shaped like his eye were often used to ward off evil, according to the ministry’s statement. Still, Live Science reports uncertainty from outside experts. Attilio Mastrocinque, a retired archaeology professor formerly at the University of Verona in Italy, was not involved in the excavation but said it’s unclear if some of these artifacts are actually gold tongues after looking at photos posted by the ministry. He even suggested that one artifact appears to show a wheat ear, a symbol associated with fertility that shows up across the ancient world.

That wheat-ear possibility matters because it hints at how complex “identification from images” can be in archaeology, especially when categories like gold tongue vs. other cultic objects are on the line. Mastrocinque compared the newly found object to silver wheat ears found in Roman sanctuaries in Europe. Meanwhile, other specialists urged caution on the altar’s interpretation. Krzysztof Jakubiak, an archaeology professor at the University of Warsaw who has excavated at Marina el-Alamein in the past but was not involved in the recent excavation, told Live Science he’d exercise caution asserting a direct comparison between iconographic motifs on the discovered altar and those of false door iconography. He said the altar might be unfinished and its appearance might simply resemble a false door.

Hala Mostafa, an archaeology professor at Ain Shams University, offered a different read. In an email to Live Science, she said the altar may depict the hieroglyphic sign for “offering” rather than a false door. On top of that, one tomb contained an 8.2-foot-long (2.5 meters) granite coffin whose lid was still on when the tomb was discovered. The team is currently examining the skeletal remains inside.

The discovery also surfaced an incomplete statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess associated with love and beauty. Live Science notes that during Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty, Greek culture and religion became increasingly popular in Egypt. Mastrocinque said it will be interesting to see if there is a structure for Aphrodite near the statue, asking whether there was “a little cultic place of Aphrodite within this funerary complex.” That question is a reminder that funerary spaces are rarely purely “Egyptian” or purely “Roman.” They are often places where people blend identities when the world around them changes.

The broader interpretation from the excavation team leans into that blend. Dorota Dzierzbicka, director of the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission to Marina el-Alamein, said the new finds, together with discoveries made at the site in the past, reveal the town was “a culturally diverse community in which Egyptian and Graeco-Roman traditions coexisted and blended in everyday life and funerary practices.” She added that the new discoveries were made by Egyptian archaeologists working at the site.

For executives and board members who track emerging risks and opportunities, the second-order lesson is not just about ancient beliefs. It is about how institutions manage cultural information and uncertainty. This dig includes carefully dated contexts, yet it also features expert disagreements about object identification and iconographic intent. In modern terms, that is a live example of why provenance, interpretation methods, and communication discipline matter, especially when discoveries can influence education, tourism narratives, and public trust. The Marina el-Alamein team now has 18 tombs, 24 gold “tongues,” and enough ambiguity to keep scientists busy. For decision-makers in any field, that combination is a business reality: evidence is never self-executing. Your conclusions are only as strong as your next analysis.