Page 40 - اثار مصر الفرعونية2

faience beads. Sealed jars were with Sekhemkhet's name, as was
an ivory label bearing a list of linens. Goneim was convinced he
had found an intact burial which had escaped the tomb-robbers
and there was a great deal of excitement among state officials
and the press. This was among the oldest treasures found in
Egypt.

Continuing the excavations Goneim eventually reached the
burial chamber which was blocked by a wall of stone masonry.
Inside the chamber, which was rough-cut and undecorated stood
highly-polished alabaster sarcophagus (still in situ) carved from a
singles piece single of stone and uniquely blocked at one end
with a sliding stone panel plastered into position. The
sarcophagus was opened on 26 June 1954 with great ceremony
but to the huge disappointment of the excavator and the crowd, it
was empty.

Zakaria Goneim's sensational discovery of the Buried
Pyramid with its hoard of treasures ended in tragedy in 1959
when he committed suicide at the height of his career.

In 1963, Jean-Philippe Lauer took up the excavation of
Sekhemkhet's monument by investigating the possibility of a
south tomb, a feature which he had found on the southern side of
Step Pyramid. He also wanted to reconstruct a plan of the Buried
Pyramid and to try to the mystery of the missing mummy. Lauer
uncovered the foundations of the south tomb be low destroyed

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