## 1 Introduction  
Under the supervision of the Egyptian Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. [PERSON], a wooden statue was discovered in Abu-Rawash site in July 2019. It was found at a 30 m high hill distant 1.8 km to the east of the pyramid and funerary complex of [PERSON], the third ruler of ancient Egypt's 4 th Dynasty. The discovery was extremely important since it provides a great deal of information on the wooden culture properties of ancient Egypt [1]. Although a large proportion of the artefacts in Egypt are made in wood, very few studies report the wood deterioration as result of interference between the biotic and abiotic processes [2; 3; 4], and in particular the soil contribution in it [3]. The studies of how the abiotic factors can induce the wooden biotic deterioration of these precious objects can improve the knowledge on the processes and the possible subsequent restoration, directing the preservation treatments [2; 5; 6]. Archaeological wooden objects usually undergo a transformation in their chemical composition, causing physical and mechanical property changes of the wood cells [7]. These changes are generally proportionate to the contact period with the burial soil or weathering environments [8]. These changes are attributed to the oxidation and hydrolysis processes reported in several previous studies [9; 10]. Buried archaeological wood is often exposed to the microbiological processes, where different types of microorganisms (mainly bacteria and microfungi) can actively attack wood depending on the soil environment [11; 12]. The most destructive white-rot and brown-rot fungi may attack partially dried woods in the presence of oxygen [13; 14; 15; 16]. Therefore, these fungi activities are relevant only for buried archaeological wood in arid regions. On the contrary, soft-rot fungi (e.g., _Ascomycetes_) usually degrade wood with higher moisture (and also lower lignin content) [17]. The oxygen and humidity conditions are typically in temperate climates, even in soil layers above the groundwater levels [18; 19]. Bacteria also may play a significant role in water-saturated wood decay [20]. Bacterial attacks (by cavitation, tunnelling, and erosion [21]) can degrade buried wood more slowly than fungi. One of the most microbial destructive forms is the lignin-degrading bacteria [22], which are abundant in most wood that was wet for a considerable period in aquatic environments or buried in saturated soils [2; 5]. Bacterial deterioration acts as lignocellulosic structure deterioration of wood; bacteria are also able to attack the pits membranes in tracheid and ray parenchyma, resulting in a very pronounced increase in the wood porosity [23; 24]. Erosion bacteria (which create depressions in the cell wall from inside the lumen) are found to attack the water-saturated wood in low-oxygen conditions in which wood-degrading fungi and other wood-degrading bacteria cannot be active [5]; this type of bacteria (mainly _Cytoplasa Flavobacterium-Bacteroides_ sub-group) have the ability to degrade secondary wall layers and deplete cellulose and hemicellulose from the wood [1; 25]. The nature of the wooden object deterioration is therefore extremely dependent on the surrounding environments (including the soil) and is strongly influenced by its characteristics. The impacts of soil on the ancient buried woods could be different according to their pH value and mineralogical compositions. Burial soil ecology is extremely influenced by acidity; the fungal to bacterial ratio increases as pH decreases, while rates of wood deterioration are generally reduced by increasing soil acidity [26]. Fine-textured clay soils may protect wood more than coarse sandy soils from wood absorption and occlusion in the soil matrix [26]. An accurate evaluation of the complex environmental conditions is essential for understanding the deterioration level of buried woods and, consequently, to develop their conservation strategies.