Chamber T-17 was long described as a small cult room because its later phases contain incense installations, offering deposits and restricted access. Re-examination of the earliest floors has complicated that interpretation.
The first phase contains the setting for a fixed rectangular object but no secure altar, offering pit or cult assemblage. Ritual fittings appear only after written consultation had already been practiced for a generation. The sequence is compatible with several interpretations, but it weakens the assumption that Naru entered Naduman society as a deity from the beginning.
The current project therefore treats the religious character of T-17 as a historical development rather than an original function.