Coptic Manuscript Find

Here's a link to one of the news articles that mentions the discovery of some Coptic manuscripts: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1306696.htm
No clue yet as to the contents of the manuscripts. Let's hope that they are akin to the Nag Hammadi finds. They could, of course, just be Coptic translations of the Bible.

Coptic manuscripts unearthed in Egyptian tomb

Polish experts excavating in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor have discovered three ancient Coptic manuscripts in a pharaonic tomb.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said the find was the single most important Coptic discovery since 1945, when a pair of Bedouins stumbled onto the Coptic codices in Nag Hammadi in Egypt's western desert.

The council said the manuscripts date to the sixth century and were concealed in a Middle Kingdom (2000-1800 BC) tomb in Luxor, about 710 kilometres (440 miles) south of Cairo.

The texts may have been hidden there by Christians who were being persecuted at the time by the Romans.

The council's head Zahi Hawas said one of the manuscripts was 22.5 centimetres by 17 centimetres and three centimetres thick.

He said the second had 50 pages and a cover made of skin adorned with ornaments, while the third also had 50 pages and a cover, but was in a poorer state.

Mr Hawas said experts would restore the manuscripts and try to read them in the hope that it would shed more light on early Christianity.