Pieces of an ancient Egyptian necropolis which were pillaged¹ from Egypt in 1999 have been discovered in an antiques shop in Spain.

一座1999年遭掠夺的古埃及大墓地的部分手工制品在西班牙一家古玩店被发现。

The pieces were pillaged from the vast ancient burial ground of Saqqara

A Middle Eastern expert spotted² the eight fragments（碎片） of limestone³（石灰岩） after recognising the inscriptions⁴（铭文，碑文） , Barcelona police said.

The pieces are inscribed⁵（题写，雕刻） with hieroglyphics⁶（象形文字） dating from the 3rd Century BC.

They will now be returned to the Egyptian government.

The artefacts（人工制品） were looted（抢劫） from the Saqqara burial ground in the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, south of Cairo, in 1999.

A statement said they were found by an expert from the University of Barcelona who noticed that the pieces "bore inscriptions that made him suspect they came from" Saqqara.

They had been on sale priced between 2,000 and 10,000 euros ($2,600; £1,700 and $13,000; £8,400).