In March 2022, archaeologists discovered five 4,000-year-old tombs, recovering 250 painted wooden sarcophagi containing complete mummies and 150 statuettes of various gods at the site's Cemetery of Ancient Animals. Over the years, archaeologists have unearthed many tombs, artifacts, and mummies while excavating the site: a rare gilded burial mask and several dozen caches of mummies in 2018, for instance, or statues of various gods and a number of completely sealed sarcophagi in 2020. Saqqara was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979, although looters during the 2011 Egyptian protests broke into store rooms and caused some damage to the site that year.

The Saqqara necropolis served the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis and boasts numerous pyramids, including the Step pyramid of Djoser, whose design and construction is usually attributed to Imhotep, chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser (and later immortalized as the monster in The Mummy). Over time, illustrations were added, and spells were also inscribed on the interior of coffins or the linen shrouds used to wrap the deceased. They were originally painted onto objects or written on the walls of burial chambers. These 'books' were actually collections of funerary texts and spells to help the deceased on their journey through the underworld ( Duat)-not to bring people back from the dead-and they are not holy texts like the Bible or Qur'an. The reality is naturally quite different: Notably, there is not one magical copy of the Book of the Dead, as depicted in the film there were many versions over the centuries, all unique, with the choice of spells often tailored to the specific needs of deceased royals and (later) high-ranking members of Egyptian society.

The scroll has been dubbed the 'Waziri papyrus.' It is currently being translated into Arabic.įans of the 1999 film The Mummy know that the Egyptian Book of the Dead plays a key role in bringing the cursed high priest Imhotep back to terrorize the living. Archaeologists have confirmed that a papyrus scroll discovered at the Saqquara necropolis site near Cairo last year does indeed contain texts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead-the first time a complete papyrus has been found in a century, according to Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.

Ancient papyrus for sale