A story from LiveScience reports a portion of the book of Mark has been found as part of a mummy mask. The papyrus had been used to record the book of Mark but was later re-used as part of the mask. LiveScience reports:
A text that may be the oldest copy of a gospel known to exist — a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that was written during the first century, before the year 90 — is set to be published.
At present, the oldest surviving copies of the gospel texts date to the second century (the years 101 to 200).
This first-century gospel fragment was written on a sheet of papyrus that was later reused to create a mask that was worn by a mummy. Although the mummies of Egyptian pharaohs wore masks made of gold, ordinary people had to settle for masks made out of papyrus (or linen), paint and glue. Given how expensive papyrus was, people often had to reuse sheets that already had writing on them.
The discovery of this copy of Mark adds further evidence of the validity of the Bible.