"but it could be religiously significant – as a place for offerings to the gods. Or, even more symbolically, it could have been a place where the dead were laid out."
Ever read motel of the mysteries? I wonder if these people have any idea what they are talking about.
"Each part of the "Toot'NC'mon" Motel is catalogued and fitted carefully into Carter's map of the site as a tomb and funeral repository. Even the Hot and Cold water initials on the "water trumpets" are taken by Carter as meaningful, namely, as his initials. The shrine, "carved out of a single piece of porcelain" is used to pray to their gods in song. The famous (because it appears on a paper ribbon sealing the shrine) chant is worked out phonetically by Carter to be "Sanitized Before Using" .
The altar is a TV set on a dresser - the drawers are for depositing offerings for the gods, Carter postulates. "
Don't know. I don't normally read fiction.