Turkoman Jewelry Symbols Include Islamic Symbols

As the Mongol conquerors assumed their kingdoms under the great Khan in Central and South Asia in the Late Middle Ages, the Moslem religion was ascendant throughout that region.  The Turkoman people added much of the Moslem spirituality to their own veneration of ancestors and their tribal geographic origins in the symbols of mountains and ancestors: the equilateral triangle mounted on a prayer cylinder with abstract ram's heads decorating the piece.

Up to at least the 1950s, the Turkoman jewelry and their fabric arts were their religious art.  Even their camels and donkeys wore the tribal symbols in silver and sometimes gilded silver jewelry and blankets. The modern-day analog would be the taxi driver who carries the medallion of the name of Allah written in beautiful Arabic calligraphy.  It is doubtful that the medallion could be read, but it is the symbol that all understand as a blessing from Allah.

Our last post was about the Asik, or sometimes written as Asyk, in tripartite form symbolizing the family  but today we can look at a single Asik (my preferred spelling, because it uses the vowel harmony that is typical for the Turkish dialect that I once spoke fairly well).   Here is a photo from a page that tells a fuller story of its symbols:

On the top two gemstones set into the silver you will see crescents and stars, the widely recognized symbol of Islam in its political and religious expression.  The carnelian in the center is an irregular cabochon form.  The gemstone does not show signs of having been replaced, so apparently the original silversmith preferred to use the matching red stone rather than a more golden carnelian that would have been smooth enough to make the intaglio of stars and crescents.  

Of course, the breathtakingly beautiful mosques of Uzbekistan speak above all of the inculturation of the Turkoman to the religion of Islam. 

For more information on Turkoman silver pieces, see my studio at Artfire. 

The URL is http://craftsofthepast.artfire.com

Tripartite Asyk as Symbol of Family

See more information on this piece at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/craftsofthepast/3920808/Antique

This piece is known as gosa-asyk.  The traditional design is an alignment of three plaques suggestive of heart shapes or female bodies.  In the Teke tribe, from which this piece originates, most such pieces have areas that are gilded.  In the tripartite gosa-asyk, between the three heart shapes, it is customary to place separators made of the same material.  In the case above, the pieces actually were cut from the same plate of patterned and gilded silver.  You can see how the pieces fit together by looking at the underside of the piece. 

Both the examples that I have seen of this design of the tripartite gosa-asyk hang on a heavy leather cord which shows signs of long wear, but still very pliable and sturdy.  The silver also is a plate thick enough to resist even intentional force to bend it.  The plate of silver from which this Teke Turkoman family symbol is made is 2.8 mm thick.  

The Turkoman that were interviewed by Dieter and Reinhold Schlechter for their book Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman reported that this is the Turkoman symbol for the family in their minds: Father, Mother and Child.  

There are other jewelry designs that express this mindset: two larger asyk shapes with one smaller squeezed between them and all of them attached to form a solid pendant. 

See more information on this piece at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/craftsofthepast/3780124/Turkoman

The heart or anthropomorphic female symbol expressed in the silver asyk is given by the groom's family to their daughter-in-law as a wedding present.  After marriage, the woman attaches the asyk to her two braids, the married woman's traditional hair style.  The Turkoman females wear more hair ornamentation than is typical among women in the Western hemisphere.  In wearing this particular piece, the woman reveals her married status and shows her family's intention to increase the tribe through her fertility.  

Many Turkoman pieces are shown at  http://craftsofthepast.artfire.com

Turkoman Ancestor Commemoration in Gilded Silver Ornaments

The motive or tribal consciousness of the Turkoman is expressed in the ornamentation of their homes, their animals and themselves.  To this day in Turkmenistan, their outdoor bread ovens made of clay bear the ancestral commemorative symbol: the ram's horn.   You will almost certainly see the symbols in the carpets, on the walls of their tents or homes, in the embroidered panels of their chapans (men's cloaks) and the yokes of the women's dresses and the edging of their head covering.  Perhaps the most important place for the symbol is the grave marker.

The wood amulet was worn when they were mountain dwellers.  And the dagdan, an amulet made from the wood of the dagdan tree is still highly prized.  It not only commemorates the spiritual practices of their ancestors, but the trees are still there in the mountains, the origin of the Turkoman.  The dagdan carries the power of the ancestor and of the mountain.

But the ancestor symbol is most striking when we see it mounted atop a gilded silver amulet (prayer box) with the prayers and blessings sealed inside.  Such a piece of jewelry is usually worn by women, just as the wood dagdan is worn by women and children.  Here is an example of a gilded silver amulet (acar bag) made by the Western Yomud tribe in the first third of the 1900s:

The central motif at the top of this amulet has an abstraction of a ram's head, the carnelian serving as the head and the outward curving gilded silver forms are the horns.  That is a very noticeable ram's head when the piece is worn.  More abstract are the embossed forms of the horns surrounding and dividing the carnelians on the front of the amulet.  

You also note that the ram's horn is so decorative that it has a floral quality.  This reveals the Turkoman's instinct to abstract the essence of floral and arboreal forms as well as their beautiful water symbols in pieces such as this: 

The flowing, almost rippling shapes that are purposely not gilded, but remain silver in order  more powerfully to suggest water in movement.  See more about this piece at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/craftsofthepast/3889681/Turkoman

Still, the mountain and the ancestor motifs are two of the three most important and most universal symbols among the Turkoman.  In my next blog post, I will discuss their symbols for the family.  

Reference: Dieter and Reinhold Schlechter, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983.

The Mountain as a Turkoman Motif

The triangular plaque with pendants is as prominent as the dome in the repertoire of the Turkoman silversmith.  The triangle is often backed with a piece with the same cut-out patterns of flora that the front plate has.  This two-layered hollow structure is very common in the best of the Turkoman jewelry pieces.  The photo here shows a good example of this kind of workmanship:

As you will note, the back and the front are almost identical.  But the space in between the two layers is open, as you see the red cloth background through either side.  

Many mountain symbols or *tumar* are made of rather thick, solid silver, often with gold applied to certain parts of the pattern inscribed on the front.  The back of the plate is left plain.  As in this example: 

In these side-by-side comparisons of items that came from the hands of Turkoman silversmiths, perhaps from different tribes, but all hold the same world view, and all express their spirituality with symbols of the mountain of their origins (tumar), the dome (gupba), the family (triple asik), the amuletic tube (bozbend) or the rectangular prayer box (galaj?).  In the case of the tumar/bozbend the mountain symbol and the amuletic tube  are combined for a spectacular piece such as that shown in this photo:

One of the serious studies of Turkoman culture, including the myths and symbols that express the mindset of the traditional Turkoman people, was done by Dieter and Reinhold Schlechter, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983.   Copiously illustrated with drawings and photographs of the jewelry being worn by the people, as well as catalog photos from important collections.  It is a fascinating study of a culture that is in its vanishing stages.  

More information on many different examples of Turkoman jewelry from items for everyday wear and also items of museum quality can be found at http://craftsofthepast.artfire.com

The Dome as a Turkoman Motif

Further details on such items available at CraftsofthePast on Artfire.

The dome shape represents, naturally enough, the world as a reflection or the *other half of the sphere* in its relation to the heavens.  It occurs again and again in the old silver jewelry of the Turkoman people.  Here is a durable and imaginative ring, at least 70 years old.  It was old when I collected it in Turkey in 1970.  That is just one instance of the dome motif in my Turkoman jewelry collection.  Here is another:

Further details on such items are  available at: http://craftsofthepast.artfire.com

The pendant above is gilded in the process described in the immediately previous blog post at this site.  It is also decorated with granulation -- domed dots of silver over the curvature of the gilded dome.  The silver objects on chains hanging from the dome reinforce the idea of earthiness.  They are sometimes understood as inverted mountain motifs.  (Schlechter, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983).  

In Turkey and Afghanistan, I continued to find instances of the same dome motif in Turkoman jewelry.  In time photos of most of them will find their way into the posts on this blog.

Turkoman Gold on Silver Technique

See more of this item at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/craftsofthepast/3751161/

Unlike a simple gold wash, the Turkoman technique endures for more than  a century, we know from personal experience.   A gold *washing* applied to silver will wear away over time, leaving only a soft glow to the silver piece that has developed patina in the thinly covered spots.   The Turkoman gold-on-silver jewelry in my collection remains resplendent after a hundred years.  

The Turkoman silversmith began with the purest silver available in the form of ingots imported from Russia in general.  At the least they would use melted coins from neighboring countries, standard 0.900 coin silver.  The work then began at the clay hearth built by the metal worker.  The handmade furnace would be fanned with a bellows by an apprentice, usually a pre-teen boy in training to become a silversmith.  The bellows were made of goatskin.  The smithy used simple hand tools, often handmade: a press, pliers, gouges, chisels, punches, hammers, anvils and prybars.  

With this, he could make intricate pieces, heavy in tribal symbolism, paying respect to the mountain, ancestors, and other aspects of his worldview.  The pieces such as the pendant above were made for women, girls and even the children of the tribe.  Men wore silver belts, breastplates, ornate fasteners for their chapans (cloaks), and silver sheaths for daggers.  They also furnished their horses with silver decoration on the blankets and bags hanging on the horses.  

Almost all the Turkoman silver that shows up in present-day collections has some gilding (golding) on it.  Gilding is accomplished with the use of fire.  Thin gold plates are heated red hot and mixed with other metals to stabilize the gold and keep it workable.  Chemicals and minerals are used to prepare the silver surface in the areas that are to be gilded.  Then the gold mixture is rubbed carefully and patiently into the amalgam on the surface of the silver.  The piece of jewelry is then heated again to meld the gold and silver just at the surface of the piece.  Lots of patient heating and rubbing is required for each piece.  In the 150 years record of making such pieces, there must have been at least a million hours spent in preparing these lovely and culturally important pieces, now disappearing into museums and private collections.

Reference: Dieter and Reinhold Schletzer, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983.

Symbols of the Turkoman Tribal Jewelry

The Turkoman jewelry by the period from 1850 to 1950 had settled into traditional patterns of expression for the Turkoman (Turko-Mongol) world view.  These patterns prevailed throughout the nations in which the Tukic people were either wandering or settled into cities or cultivated areas.  The Turkoman had spread through that region from about the 1200s, but museums do not have large collections of much earlier pieces made by these once nomadic people.

Let's begin our discussion of Turkoman jewelry by looking at a piece that carries so much obvious symbolism that it can be called an important expression of the totem or amuletic properties in the jewelry of that tribe's culture.

Turkoman gold-washed silver amulet with prayers inside

Before the discussion of symbols begins, let me acknowledge the work of Dieter and Reinhold Schletzer, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983 as the source of much of the information I am able to provide on this blog.  

This amulet contains prayers of blessing and protection for the wearer.  They are written on paper and encased between the front panel and a silver backing.  They are still inside though this piece dates from around 1900-1930, made by a member of the Western Yomud tribe.  

The amulet is appropriately filled with ancestor symbols: the ram's horn.  You first see how they are symbolized by the attachments at the top of the amulet: the curved forms between the attachments of the medallion-decorated chain.  Then again the 5 rows of mirror-image ram's horns that divide the carnelian cabochon gemstones.  

Messrs. Schletzer write in the work noted above that "The two main features of Turkoman mythological consciousness until well into the 19th century were an undifferentiated, sacral belief in passive nature gods and the ancestor cult. "

The floral and ram's horns motifs on the piece in the photo reflect that spirituality, especially fitting for a container for prayers - an amulet.

The diagonal cross that divides the ram's horns on this piece is also a powerful symbol used over and over again in their jewelry as an expression of the seasonal cycle and mankind's life cycle.

The Western Yomud tribe had some gifted silversmiths and we will discuss the craft later, but for the moment, we will be discussing the symbolism and providing examples.

For more information on this particular piece, see
CraftsofthePast at Artfire.com