The naval crown (corona navalis), decorated in like manner with a series of miniature prows of ships, was the reward of him who gained a notable victory at sea.
Here the elk cows appear as if X-rayed and the ships no longer have elk cows heads on their prows.
An important piece of evidence on this point has recently come to light in the shape of the carved hippopotamus-tusk handle of an Egyptian predynastic stone knife, said to have been found in the Wadi el 'Araq, on the right bank of the Nile opposite Nag`Hamadi, and now in the Louvre.23 On this remarkable object, which is certainly of predynastic Egyptian date (before 3500 B.C.), we see representations of early Egyptians and perhaps other tribes fighting, with ships, some like those represented on the Egyptian predynastic pots and others different, with high prows and sterns, and we also see a strange deity of Babylonian aspect.
