CAIRO: Egyptian authorities announced the discovery of 250 sealed coffins containing mummies, 150 bronze statues of ancient gods and goddesses, and other antiquities at the Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo.

Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters on Monday that an archaeological mission working in the Bubastian Cemetery area discovered a bronze statue cachette dating back to the Late Period of ancient Egypt.

"The cache contained 150 bronze statues of gods and goddesses such as Anubis, Amunmeen, Osiris, Isis, Nefertum, Bastet, and Hathor, as well as several bronze pots," Waziri said. He also mentioned that the mission discovered 250 intact coloured wooden coffins dating back to 500 B.C. inside several burial wells containing well-preserved mummies, as well as a group of golden-face wooden statues, painted wooden boxes, and amulets.  The mission discovered a papyrus with verses from the Book of the Dead while excavating inside one of the wells, he said.

The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text that was used from the start of the New Kingdom (around 1550 B.C.) to around 50 B.C. It is a collection of magical spells written over a 1,000-year period by many priests to aid a deceased person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife.

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