It was often placed next to various figures in artwork or shown being held by Egyptian deities who had come to be worshipped in the Near East. It was sometimes used to represent water or fertility.[27] Elsewhere in the Near East, the sign was incorporated into Anatolian hieroglyphs to represent the word for "life", and the sign was used in the artwork of the Minoan civilization centered on Crete. Minoan artwork sometimes combined the ankh, or the related tyet sign, with the Minoan double axe emblem.[28]