Three false doors that served as portals for communicating with the dead are among ancient burial remains recently unearthed in a vast Egyptian necropolis, an archaeological team announced. The discoveries date back to Egypt's turbulent First Intermediate Period, which ran roughly between 2160 and 2055 B.C.

The necropolis "is a very big site in a town that was very important in Egypt, but there is a lot that is still unknown," said excavation leader Carmen Pérez Dte of the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, Spain. "In this place any discovery is very important, and I think our excavations will help write a new page for the history of Egypt." Discoveries like the three newfound false doors therefore offer some of the best hope for Egyptologists hungry for information about the period's artwork and culture.

According to Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, "a false door is a place where you have an interaction between the living and the dead. It is really a doorway for the soul to go in and out of the afterworld," Ikram said.

The sandstone doors are inscribed with religious texts and the names and titles of those buried in the tombs they once belonged to, excavation leader Pérez Dte said. They were painted blue and red and depicted a recessed series of doorways, which was a common design for false doors. They also bore the formula for religious offerings.