"Papyrus Plants" from the House of the Ladies at Akrotiri Brooch

This gorgeous brooch celebrates a detail of a Bronze Age Aegean fresco found in the House of the Ladies (c. 1650 BC) at the prehistoric site of Akrotiri (today on Santorini). Standing nearly four feet tall, these striking plants adorned three walls of a room in a domestic or ritual setting. The plants were identified as papyrus by the early excavators, though the exact species has yet to be confirmed.