Fertility triad. Two smaller stones flank a broad central stone that has an offering bench at its foot at a tumulus (stone heap marking a burial place) at Wadi Zalaqa in the eastern Sinai. Author Avner believes triads such as this served as predecessors for other triads that became popular in later Near Eastern iconography, such as that on a stela from Thebes, Egypt (see photograph); a Mycenaean carved ivory box lid (see photograph); and a painted jar from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud (see photograph).