Scientists finally decode ancient Egyptian spellbook

After intense study, Australian researchers have cracked the code of an Egyptian spellbook that had been an enigma for roughly 1,300 years.

The spellbook, a parchment codex, is written in Coptic. The researchers studied the book's language and drawings and discovered that it contained "a series of invocations and spells," Live Science reports.

Malcolm Choat and Iain Gardner, professors at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney in Australia, have nicknamed the book the "handbook of ritual power." The book includes 20 pages with details about casting love spells, exorcising spirits, and treating the "black jaundice" infection.

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While the code has been cracked, other details about the spellbook still remain a mystery: Choat and Gardner aren't sure who, exactly, was using the spellbook, and they're also unsure where the codex is from — the university obtained it from an antiquities dealer in 1981. The codex is now at the Museum of Ancient Cultures at Macquarie University.