Chryssolakkos
Chryssolakkos means the "Pit of gold". This is where the ancient necropolis (royal burial enclosure or cemetery, 1700BCE) in Malia, an ancient Minoan town in Crete, Greece is located.
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The Malia Pendant, on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum as of 2020, was found here and is of high quality gold-smithery of the Minoan times. The jewel takes the form of two insects, which are identical (mirror images) joined head-to-head with the tips of their abdomens almost touching in a symmetrical or heraldic arrangement. The insects’ wings spread backwards. From the lower edges of the wings and a point close to the tip of the abdomen dangle three discs. With their legs, the insects are "grasping" a centrally placed circular disc and there is a second, smaller, smooth globule placed above this and between the insects' heads as if they were eating it. Megascolia maculata, a wasp, was proposed as the model for the insects, and the fruits of a native Cretan herb Tordylium apulum as a model for the three discs that are suspended from the pendant.[1]
References
- Nelson, E. C., Mavrofridis, G., & Anagnostopoulos, I. T. (2020). NATURAL HISTORY OF A BRONZE AGE JEWEL FOUND IN CRETE: THE MALIA PENDANT. The Antiquaries Journal, 1–12. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581520000475