57 Ancient Tombs Found in Egypt

Many remarkably intact, include religious texts
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2010 5:26 AM CDT
57 Ancient Tombs Found in Egypt
This undated photo released on Sunday, May 23, 2010, shows a painted wooden sarcophagus discovered in Lahoun, near Fayoum, some 70 miles south of Cairo, in Egypt.   (AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities)

Archeologists have discovered a cache of ancient tombs in Egypt, some of which are almost 5,000 years old. Most of the 57 tombs hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus that houses a mummy; the oldest among them dates back to the rule of Egypt's first and second dynasties. One of the oldest tombs—and all of its funerary equipment—is almost perfectly intact, Egypt's chief archeologist tells the AP.

Many of the more recent (recent meaning about 4,000 years old) are covered in linen decorated with texts from the Book of the Dead and scenes featuring ancient gods. Archeologists discovered the tombs in Fayoum, about 70 miles south of Cairo, the same area where 53 ancient tombs were found last year.
(More Egypt stories.)

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