AN ANCIENT coffin covered in “nonsense hieroglyphics” has confused a top European archaeologist.

The coffin, discovered at an enormous burial site just south of Cairo, Egypt, has baffled leading archaeologists after they could not decipher the hieroglyphics scrawled across it. Scientists claim the coffin to date back to over 2,000 years, yet the inscriptions surrounding it have been called “nonsense” and likely the work of a poor copy cat.

Burial sites are usually made up of noblemen and people of whose status was untouchable.

Thus, inscriptions are more often than not near perfect, with flawless design and patterns, and easily decipherable code.

Yet, the most recent find by Dr Kamil Kuraszkiewicz, an egyptologist from the University of Warsaw, proved a difficult task to decode.

This, Mr Kuraszkiewicz claimed, is likely due to a cheap attempt at copying the more elegant and intricate hieroglyphs of esteemed and high status Egyptians.

In total, 36 mummies were found by Polish researchers at Saqqara, Egypt's famous "city of the dead" (Image: J. DĄBROWSKI / PCMA)

On finding the coffin, Mr Kuraszkiewicz labelled the inscriptions as “clumsy” and likely written by an illiterate worker.

In total, 36 mummies were found at Saqqare, Egypt’s famous “city of the dead”.

The giant cemetery is home to thousands of ancient corpses and is the site of the Djoser pyramid.

At 4,700 years old, the pyramid is regarded as the first pyramid ever built.

Some of the hieroglyphs were poor attempts of imitating the god of death Anubis (Image: J. DĄBROWSKI / PCMA)

The coffins found in the new site, thought to be between 2,000 and 2,600 years old, were in extremely bad condition.

The bodies inside were only given a simple wrapping and embalming, suggesting the dead were of working or middle class families, rather than the elite.

Mr Kuraszkiewicz told the Polish Press Agency: "Most of the mummies we discovered were very modest.

“They were only subjected to basic embalming treatments, wrapped in bandages and placed directly in pits dug in the sand.

The findings prove that poorer people tried to mimic the burial practices of their elite counterpart (Image: J. DĄBROWSKI / PCMA)

Hieroglyphs were normally created by professional scribes (Image: GETTY)

"There are no inscriptions or personal items that would hint at these people’s names or professions," he added.

"But analysis of skeletal remains indicates that they mostly performed hard labour."

The Saqqara site has been worked by archaeologists for decades in the hope of a mass ancient burial site find.

Scientists knew the site acted as a cemetery for the entire ancient cit of memphis, and so were hopefully of finding treasure trove of mummified bodies and coffins.

Ancient Egypt predates mainstream religion (Image: Express Newspapers)

The coffin with the “nonsense” hieroglyphics initially excited researchers as it seemed to be superbly conserved.

But, on unearthing it, they realised that the inscriptions on the coffins’ surface were largely nonsensical and the bodies inside not properly mummified.

The box also featured “clumsy” depictions of jackals, intending to represent Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of death.

Mr Kuraszkiewicz said of the amateur scribe: "Apparently, the artisan who painted it could not read, and perhaps he tried to recreate something that he had seen before.

Inscriptions are usually flawless and perfectly crafted (Image: GETTY)

"In any case, some of the painted shapes are not hieroglyphic signs, and the whole does not form a coherent text."

The find is significant, however, as it points towards an example of normal working Egyptians having been given similar funerals to their rich counterparts.

It outlines how the poor would have attempted to mimic the practices of the elite in order to attain immortality.