Somebody check on Brendan Fraser: 250 mummies and other ancient artifacts have been moved from their resting place in Egypt. Archeologists discovered the treasure trove in a necropolis or “city of the dead” in Saqqara near Cairo. The mummies were each found inside painted coffins called sarcophagi that were dug up along with 150 bronze statues of ancient Egyptian gods. “In one of the wooden sarcophagi, we found, for the first time, a complete and sealed papyrus,” said Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, at an exhibit of the finds on Monday. The ancient papyrus has been sent off for further study. Other treasures excavated from the burial mound include instruments believed to have been used in specific rituals around 2,500 years ago in 500 B.C., Waziri added. The Saqqara necropolis, which was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, was part of the burial ground of the ancient capital of Memphis.
