Although the houses in the village varied in size they followed a fairly standard plan. The first room very often contained a rectangular mud brick structure partially or fully enclosed except for an opening on the long side, which was approached by three steps. Bruyère found remains of these structures in twenty eight of the sixty eight houses known to him at the site. The function of the bed-like constructions is still being discussed by Egyptologists today. It has been suggested that they could have functioned as a birthing or nursing bed, or a bed-altar to an ancestor cult. Fragments from several paintings from the exterior panels of some of these structures specifically involve themes in female life: labour, childbirth and daily grooming. It is assumed that the villagers might have worshipped figures of deities or supplicated a recently deceased relative within these bed-altars. Recently it has been suggested (Brooker, 2009, p. 44-53...