Step 7 of 10

boat

Fig. 17 / 20 - Star pendant from Tell el Ajjul - British Museum - [130766](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1949-0212-7) — Fig. 17 / 20 - Star pendant from Tell el Ajjul - British Museum - 130766

Our main figure is standing on a horizontal base, from which three lotus flowers sprout. The technique used to make the base and the circles below the lotus flowers is the same as the one we saw in the earrings and in the Levantine star pendants (Fig. 20). This would thus be another argument for a Levantine origin.

What the base is meant to depict is unclear. It has been suggested that it is a boat, especially considering the comparison with the Egyptian marsh-hunting scene discussed before. A. J. Evans, ‘A Mykênæan Treasure from Ægina’ 13 (1892-1893), p. 195-226.

Others have suggested it is just a neutral base, not meant to depict anything, even though the flowers do seem to evoke a marsh or nature-like setting. R. Schiestl, ‘Three pendants: Tell el Dab’a, Aigina, and a new silver pendant from the Petrie Museum’, in J. Fitton (ed), The Aigina Treasure: Aegean Bronze Age Jewellery and a Mystery Revisited(London, 2009), p. 51-58.