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Japor Snippet Pendant

Location: Tatooine

Date: 32 BBY

This simple carved pendant may be almost worthless as an item of jewelry, but it is a priceless artifact when exploring the impact three generations of the Skywalker family had on shaping galactic events.

Made from a discarded chunk of japor, one of the woody plants tough enough to survive on Tatooine, it was carved by Anakin Skywalker before he joined the Jedi Order. The young slave may have stolen the pendant’s raw materials from Watto’s workshop, where he was forced to work.

Worn smooth by time, the details of the carving show natural elements coalescing at the design’s center. Anakin was a naturally powerful conduit for the energy of the Force, but it is unlikely that these simple shapes had any symbolic meaning for him at the time.

Anakin gave the snippet to Padmé Amidala when she was in her first term as Queen of Naboo, just before he embarked on an exciting future as a Jedi Knight. It was a gesture of gratitude, but also something more: Anakin was smitten with Padmé, who had befriended him while posing as a servant, and feared that he would never see her again. Anakin was determined to give her something to remember him by—hence this pendant, made with care by his own hands especially for the woman that, unbeknownst to him, he would one day marry.

Despite Padmé’s royal status, Anakin’s touchingly simple japor snippet became one of her most treasured possessions. At the time of her tragically young death, she was carried to her crypt with the token clutched between her lifeless hands. For some years afterward, the snippet was enshrined near the entrance of her tomb.