New technology is unravelling secrets about the ordinary folk of ancient Egypt, by digitally unwrapping the mummies.
London researchers have developed scanning techniques to uncover what is written on the papyrus which mummy cases are made from.
The cases are the decorated boxes the wrapped body of the deceased was placed in before being put into a tomb.
The BBC reports the technology is giving historians a new insight into everyday life in ancient Egypt.
The new technique gives Egyptologists access to the real story of ancient Egypt, according to Professor Adam Gibson of University College London, who led the project.
"Because the waste papyrus was used to make prestige objects, they have been preserved for 2000 years," he said.
"And so these masks constitute one of the best libraries we have of waste papyrus that would otherwise have been thrown away, so it includes information about these individual people, about their everyday lives."
The scraps of the papyrus are more than 2000 years old.
The writing on the paper is usually hidden by the paste and plaster that holds the mummy cases together.
However, researchers can see what is underneath by scanning them with different kinds of light which makes the inks glow.
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