THE "XA" ROOM

We completed the clearing of the floor of the XA room connecting the courtyard to the corridor surrounding the first subterranean level of the tomb.

Under the lower layer of debris (where we discovered a large amount of herbs demonstrating that the room was used as a stable at an unknown epoch) we discovered a circular structure (Fig. 2) excavated in the rock of the floor. It is placed right in front of the courtyard door and it has a semi-spherical hole in the centre, surrounded by a little channel reaching an almost rectangular depression. The latter is 10 cm deep and almost completely filled by hardened mud. For the time being, the peculiar installation has been interpreted as a variant of a “Corn Osiris”, the hollow images of the god of the dead usually placed in the funerary chambers beside the deceased. They were filled by fertile soil planted with wheat or corn seeds. They grew up in the darkness of the tomb promising an eternal rebirth to the deceased.

The carved structure in XA room could have the same function: from a little jar standing in the central semi-spherical hole water poured out and, after have been collected in the channel, it watered the soil filling the rectangular depression where wheat or corn was planted. The position of the structure, just in front of the court entrance, can give support to that hypothesis.

In that area we completed the clearing of the YI shaft excavated in the floor of the westernmost subsidiary room opening in XA. In the future, the room at its bottom will be used to store human remains and bandages discovered during excavations.