Among the treasures were 250 sarcophagi — or painted coffins — with well-preserved mummies inside, unearthed during recent excavations at a burial ground outside Cairo, said Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"In one of the wooden sarcophagi, we found, for the first time, a complete and sealed papyrus," he told reporters at a makeshift exhibit Monday. The document was immediately moved to a museum for further study. Waziri said he believed it was similar to those found 100 years ago that discuss the Book of the Gates and the Book of the Dead. Both are ancient Egyptian funerary texts.

The dig also uncovered 150 bronze statues of Egyptian deities and instruments used for rituals dating back to the Late Period of ancient Egypt, about 500 B.C., said Waziri, who led the archaeological mission.