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- Jewelry from Central Asia in the early medieval period.
Jewelry from Central Asia in the early medieval period.
- By Neva, Elena
- Published 10 March 2008
- Jewellery - Ethnic
- Unrated
Neva, Elena
Dr. Elena Neva was guest lecturer at Columbia- and Harvard University, author of “The Art of Ancient Jewelers (Central Asia 4BC-4AD)” Boston,2008
Gast docent Columbia- en Harvard University, auteur “The Art of Ancient Jewelers (Central Asia 4BC-4AD)” Boston,2008
Experience :
- Boston School of Modern Languages
- Bunker Hill Community College.
- PAX coordinator .Program of Academic Exchange
- Boston Center for Adult Education,
- Haifa University – Israel, Department of Archaeology,
- Tajik Academy of Sciences, Department of Art History,
- Senior Research Associate
- Research Associate
- Research Assistant
- Institute of Art, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- Ph.D. in Art History
- Moscow State University, Russia
- BA/MA in History and Art History, Cum Laude
- Dushanbe College of Music, Tajikistan
- BA in Music theory, history & composition
m. 617-872-3807
e. lenasu@msn.com
View all articles by Neva, Elena
The period of the middle ages in Central Asia is distinguished by its high level of science, arts, culture and development. We see evidence of this not only in written sources, but also in cultural relics as jewelry. Since very few original jewelry articles are at our disposal, in our analysis we will consider articles depicted on wall-paintings and throughout living premises of the period from V to VIII centuries.
Central Asian wall paintings of that epoch include original “viricide” features, i.e. a realistic depiction of the people, their clothes, armor, adornment, etc. The jewelry in these paintings is depicted in great detail.
To address the subject we’ll examine two relics from the middle ages epoch, which differ in theme and character. One is a wall painting at Panjikent (a medieval town of the V-VIII centuries in Northern Tajikistan, which has been studied continuously since 1946). A well-known researcher of the East A. Belenizky from St.Petersburg wrote, that “the style of Panjikent wall painting is distinguished by accurate depiction of material item on armories, horse harnesses, adornments, clothes, patterned fabrics, to depictions of utensils, complete analogous to those frequently seen among various archaeological finds”, and the other in Ajina-tepe (remains of a Buddhist monastery of the VII-VIII centuries in Southern Tajikistan, fragments of wall painting, sculpture and architecture have been found there), which is symbolic with the accumulated cultural achievement of the epoch.
The articles of jewelry portrayed on the wall paintings include various types of adornment for the head, neck, and chest as well as for hands, feet and clothes.
Head adornments consist of diadems and fillets while necklaces, pectorals, torques for neck and chest .Arm and shoulder bracelets, rings and seal rings can all be found among hand adornments. There were also anklets as well as pieces of gold sewn on clothes and belts.
Interestingly the individual adornments on the Panjikent wall-painting are made with gold foil, the first known an application technique. (12, p.213-219).
Different types and shapes of diadems on anthropomorphic pictures of deities and tsars show various crowns with wings. Other types of diadem without wings do not resemble each other (“crowns” table) Apparently, the wings of the crowns (Table 1,5) from VI/13 (Ib, p.25) are similar in shape to those of fantastic animals seen on the throne wall of Panjikent (Ib, pic.39), thus emphasizing the stylistic unity of the wall painting. As a rule chest adornment, necklaces and pectorals consist of three parts (“Table 2-“Necklaces”). Usually, all complex adornments were worn by gods and tsars, or their retainers. If we examine the chest adornments and the hands of deities from the location II/5/6 (Ib, p.2), we would say they are decorated with a wide gold band of a pectoral with a toothed edge. Below we find a pearl necklace and further down a smooth gold adornment with a round medallion and pendant in the center. The three lines of neck adornment we also found on the figure from the location VI/B (Ib, p.23) on the northern wall.
Many characters on the Penjikent wall painting have original pearl necklaces. Hand adornments are represented by several types of shoulder bracelets (Table “bracelets”). Some of the most frequently repeated elements are rosettes and shoulder bracelets, with a connected bell (Ib, p.25) Obviously, such an adornment could be worn in a dance, a suggestion confirmed by the character’s pose in the wall painting (Ib, p.25)
To this day in India, we find small leather straps with bells that are worn on the wrists and feet and serve as a rhythmic accompaniment to the dance.
In contrast warrior’s bracelets are simple in form and have no decoration. As a rule they consist of a smooth or corrugated hoop with small balls and projections (table III, 6, 7)
We were able to see six types of earrings all of which have standard and fairly monotonous features. While the above mentioned items (diadems, bracelets...) belonged to deities and tsars, the earrings are typical of the general population (table “earrings”) and were worn by both men and women.
In the Penjikent wall painting we also see that tightly laced belts and sashes were very popular. According to the aesthetic canons of the early middle ages, this was a conventional device to depict a slender waist. One of the personages (see II/5 IB, p.29) is laced with a sash of textile fabric the long pieces of gold sewn on it. In the room I/10 two male figures are portrayed in the same type of costumes similar to “caftans”.
They are close fitting and tightly laced at the waist with belts from daggers long straight swords hang. The priest’s “caftan” is also tightly laced by a belt with mountings of precious stones and he also has a knife hanging from it. Most of the disks on the belts on the Penjikent wall-painting are rosette shaped (ceremonial rooms VI/1; XVI/10; VI/55, Ib.n.20, 31).
Adjina-tepe is the remains of a Buddhist monastery, but in spite of that fact that its “figurative motifs” consist of portraits of secular characters that correspond to those in Penjikent wall-painting. Here one can see man in “caftans”, laced with wide alternating black and yellow discs.
Daggers with gold decorations hang from the belts (wall painting from the room XXX1/P 1’2, p.16)
Important people wore an earring in the right ear which consisted of two small beads joined at the cross-picce. This type of earrings has been named sultovs’ type by researchers. Exact analogies to this type of earrings are known from the Balalyk-tepe wall painting in Southern Uzbekistan (west wall, fig.17; 3, p.16)
Adjina-tepe gives us a new type of earring: large, twisted in a spiral pattern. It is remarkable that these spiral earrings look as if they are repeat locks of the Buddha’s hair.
(2 fragment 1. drawing 2 or 9, analogies drawing 3, 4, p.100). The bracelets are hoop-shaped, smooth with multi-petal rosettes or shields which are triangular and have a complex salient tracery and cut mountings depicting precious stones (table “bracelets’)
The types of adornments of Central Asia in the early medieval period tell us about the jewelry in the V-VIII centuries. Adornments on the wall painting of Bactria- Tokharistan and Sogd are made of yellow colored gold foil in order to emphasize the real material they were made of. Apart from their decorative functions the adornments also serve a motive purpose. These were protectors, talismans and original symbols for the period, symbolic means of trying to rationally comprehend reality (4, p.266). As has been noted many of the Penjikent adornments have a pearl as the main element of decoration .Pearl necklaces are bird’s beaks and they are also placed on sacred animals. Pearl is known to be closely connected to the cult of fertility, as well as motherhood. The Anakhita –goddess worshipped in Penjikent as Nana (Nana- in Tajik and Uzbek languages is known as Mother”) is in the image of the Tsarina with four hands sitting on the back of a wild animal. (5, p.83)
Experts on the wall painting of Panjikent, emphasize that there are cult subjects. A leading role in a fertility cult lies in the worship of heavenly bodies. The multitude of pearls was acquired from the Persian Gulf near Arabian Peninsula. Pearls were not only white (which’s what is usually depicted in wall paintings), but also green, yellow, blue, rose, black in color. Pearl was believed to be a stone reflecting the light and it was this ability which gave it its value (6, p.496, 500,504).
The magic force of the pearl was believed to be real. Mountings of pearls in earrings and necklaces identified with the brilliance of the moon which gave man prosperity (7, p.289). Possibly, pearls were also connected to astral cults and directly to the moon. The deity image found in the Penjikent wall painting had different versions, including the half- moon, which was symbolized in the spread of the element of diadems. The sun and the moon were good deities; chastisers of the evil spirit, their appearance brought and gave life, health, and prosperity. These qualities were expanded to abstract depiction of heavenly bodies, which played the part of magic protectors (8, p.62)
Thus scenes decorated with a multitude of pearl may be regarded as scenes devoted to fertility cults. In their designs the solar symbols and signs of heaven, earth, water and fertility meet in diverse versions.
“Numbers, geometric bodies and figures (sphere, circle, square, etc.) do not belong solely to mathematics, they express a world harmony, they have a certain magic and moral significance” (4, p.264).
In the wall painting of Bactria-Tokharistan and Sogd, jewelry shapes are frequently rounded: rosette, circle, ball, and (sphere). Rosette as a flower was possibly attributed to Buddhist since worshippers made floral attributes to Buddha. As narrated VIII-X centuries. Kanishka, the tsar, received a prophecy from Buddha to build a sangkhara in a Stupa construction and everybody who will be revived among gods (2, p.71)
Symbolic significances are fixed to definite kinds of jewelry. The belt for example, had an original symbolic significance. Judging from the depictions on the wall painting, belts may be divided into two sorts. On one hand, the belt as an attribute of the social stratus. On the other hand, military rank was also known to be emphasized by belts and rank was depicted according to the materials applied in their making- gold, gilding silver or bronze only. In the middle ages, belts were considered a majestic sign. Central Asian peasants (dehkans) who wished to serve in the tsar’s court appeared with gold belts and kulakhs (hats) to serve (13, p.86).
As for head adornments and especially diadems it should be noted that since the 1st Hellenistic epoch, a head dress had solely a social magic function (14, p.22), the tsar gave gifts of special head adornments to his retainers, as a sign of merit or noble status (15, p.52-53). Historical sources say that the Samarqand ruler wore a gold crown with seven precious stones, while his wife’s coiffure consisted of dark veil gold flowers (16, p.110).
In addition to diadems, gold rings also served to indicate the superior social status of their owners. Rings and earrings were frequently worn on the left hand on the forefinger or middle finger.
”Any adornments may be worn or not except for finger ring, which one should never appear without” (17, p.100)
Earrings were also a symbol originally symbol of protection. In Central Asia, as well as in most of the territories of India, men wore earrings decorated with precious stones. Boys had their ears pierced in childhood. Men “kofirs”, after complicated ceremonies, could take privileged positions and received the right to wear women’s ceremonial earrings, which were worn at the top of the ear.
Tibetan men frequently wore large earrings in the left ear; sometimes they mounted a pearl in the right ear. On Pamir men wore simple annular earrings (18, p.46-47)
Thus , adornment in the period of middle ages, from V-VIII are distinguished from jewelry of earlier times by the stricter geometry of forms, simpler methods, devices and ways of construction , technology elements. During this period, precious and semiprecious stones, especially pearls, were conventional decorative features. This fact is confirmed by wall paintings and clothes.
Men’s adornments, for example, were the regales of the aristocrats in the Middle East (10, p.85). In India they served as an attribute of superior caste and often belonged to deities (Shiva, Panchui Kuvera, Vadjrapani) and bodhisattvas (10. p.85).
The same significance was extended to the characters on the Penjikent and Sogd wall painting, the interrelations between Sogdian and Indian arts of that period are mentioned in various studies.
Thus, V.Shishkin stated that the Sogd and Bactria- Tokharistan art, closely connected with the art of Gandhara and the people of Central Asia. Geographic position played an important part as a medium in art interaction between such distant civilizations as Mesopotamia and India.
Analogies of the wall painting and jewelry may be found in the wall painting throughout the Central Asian region – in Afghanistan, India, and Singtzyang. It is an analogy that is also evident in the cultural economic interactions of the region in V-VIII centuries.
Notes:
Central Asian wall paintings of that epoch include original “viricide” features, i.e. a realistic depiction of the people, their clothes, armor, adornment, etc. The jewelry in these paintings is depicted in great detail.
To address the subject we’ll examine two relics from the middle ages epoch, which differ in theme and character. One is a wall painting at Panjikent (a medieval town of the V-VIII centuries in Northern Tajikistan, which has been studied continuously since 1946). A well-known researcher of the East A. Belenizky from St.Petersburg wrote, that “the style of Panjikent wall painting is distinguished by accurate depiction of material item on armories, horse harnesses, adornments, clothes, patterned fabrics, to depictions of utensils, complete analogous to those frequently seen among various archaeological finds”, and the other in Ajina-tepe (remains of a Buddhist monastery of the VII-VIII centuries in Southern Tajikistan, fragments of wall painting, sculpture and architecture have been found there), which is symbolic with the accumulated cultural achievement of the epoch.
The articles of jewelry portrayed on the wall paintings include various types of adornment for the head, neck, and chest as well as for hands, feet and clothes.
Head adornments consist of diadems and fillets while necklaces, pectorals, torques for neck and chest .Arm and shoulder bracelets, rings and seal rings can all be found among hand adornments. There were also anklets as well as pieces of gold sewn on clothes and belts.
Interestingly the individual adornments on the Panjikent wall-painting are made with gold foil, the first known an application technique. (12, p.213-219).
Different types and shapes of diadems on anthropomorphic pictures of deities and tsars show various crowns with wings. Other types of diadem without wings do not resemble each other (“crowns” table) Apparently, the wings of the crowns (Table 1,5) from VI/13 (Ib, p.25) are similar in shape to those of fantastic animals seen on the throne wall of Panjikent (Ib, pic.39), thus emphasizing the stylistic unity of the wall painting. As a rule chest adornment, necklaces and pectorals consist of three parts (“Table 2-“Necklaces”). Usually, all complex adornments were worn by gods and tsars, or their retainers. If we examine the chest adornments and the hands of deities from the location II/5/6 (Ib, p.2), we would say they are decorated with a wide gold band of a pectoral with a toothed edge. Below we find a pearl necklace and further down a smooth gold adornment with a round medallion and pendant in the center. The three lines of neck adornment we also found on the figure from the location VI/B (Ib, p.23) on the northern wall.
Many characters on the Penjikent wall painting have original pearl necklaces. Hand adornments are represented by several types of shoulder bracelets (Table “bracelets”). Some of the most frequently repeated elements are rosettes and shoulder bracelets, with a connected bell (Ib, p.25) Obviously, such an adornment could be worn in a dance, a suggestion confirmed by the character’s pose in the wall painting (Ib, p.25)
To this day in India, we find small leather straps with bells that are worn on the wrists and feet and serve as a rhythmic accompaniment to the dance.
In contrast warrior’s bracelets are simple in form and have no decoration. As a rule they consist of a smooth or corrugated hoop with small balls and projections (table III, 6, 7)
We were able to see six types of earrings all of which have standard and fairly monotonous features. While the above mentioned items (diadems, bracelets...) belonged to deities and tsars, the earrings are typical of the general population (table “earrings”) and were worn by both men and women.
In the Penjikent wall painting we also see that tightly laced belts and sashes were very popular. According to the aesthetic canons of the early middle ages, this was a conventional device to depict a slender waist. One of the personages (see II/5 IB, p.29) is laced with a sash of textile fabric the long pieces of gold sewn on it. In the room I/10 two male figures are portrayed in the same type of costumes similar to “caftans”.
They are close fitting and tightly laced at the waist with belts from daggers long straight swords hang. The priest’s “caftan” is also tightly laced by a belt with mountings of precious stones and he also has a knife hanging from it. Most of the disks on the belts on the Penjikent wall-painting are rosette shaped (ceremonial rooms VI/1; XVI/10; VI/55, Ib.n.20, 31).
Adjina-tepe is the remains of a Buddhist monastery, but in spite of that fact that its “figurative motifs” consist of portraits of secular characters that correspond to those in Penjikent wall-painting. Here one can see man in “caftans”, laced with wide alternating black and yellow discs.
Daggers with gold decorations hang from the belts (wall painting from the room XXX1/P 1’2, p.16)
Important people wore an earring in the right ear which consisted of two small beads joined at the cross-picce. This type of earrings has been named sultovs’ type by researchers. Exact analogies to this type of earrings are known from the Balalyk-tepe wall painting in Southern Uzbekistan (west wall, fig.17; 3, p.16)
Adjina-tepe gives us a new type of earring: large, twisted in a spiral pattern. It is remarkable that these spiral earrings look as if they are repeat locks of the Buddha’s hair.
(2 fragment 1. drawing 2 or 9, analogies drawing 3, 4, p.100). The bracelets are hoop-shaped, smooth with multi-petal rosettes or shields which are triangular and have a complex salient tracery and cut mountings depicting precious stones (table “bracelets’)
The types of adornments of Central Asia in the early medieval period tell us about the jewelry in the V-VIII centuries. Adornments on the wall painting of Bactria- Tokharistan and Sogd are made of yellow colored gold foil in order to emphasize the real material they were made of. Apart from their decorative functions the adornments also serve a motive purpose. These were protectors, talismans and original symbols for the period, symbolic means of trying to rationally comprehend reality (4, p.266). As has been noted many of the Penjikent adornments have a pearl as the main element of decoration .Pearl necklaces are bird’s beaks and they are also placed on sacred animals. Pearl is known to be closely connected to the cult of fertility, as well as motherhood. The Anakhita –goddess worshipped in Penjikent as Nana (Nana- in Tajik and Uzbek languages is known as Mother”) is in the image of the Tsarina with four hands sitting on the back of a wild animal. (5, p.83)
Experts on the wall painting of Panjikent, emphasize that there are cult subjects. A leading role in a fertility cult lies in the worship of heavenly bodies. The multitude of pearls was acquired from the Persian Gulf near Arabian Peninsula. Pearls were not only white (which’s what is usually depicted in wall paintings), but also green, yellow, blue, rose, black in color. Pearl was believed to be a stone reflecting the light and it was this ability which gave it its value (6, p.496, 500,504).
The magic force of the pearl was believed to be real. Mountings of pearls in earrings and necklaces identified with the brilliance of the moon which gave man prosperity (7, p.289). Possibly, pearls were also connected to astral cults and directly to the moon. The deity image found in the Penjikent wall painting had different versions, including the half- moon, which was symbolized in the spread of the element of diadems. The sun and the moon were good deities; chastisers of the evil spirit, their appearance brought and gave life, health, and prosperity. These qualities were expanded to abstract depiction of heavenly bodies, which played the part of magic protectors (8, p.62)
Thus scenes decorated with a multitude of pearl may be regarded as scenes devoted to fertility cults. In their designs the solar symbols and signs of heaven, earth, water and fertility meet in diverse versions.
“Numbers, geometric bodies and figures (sphere, circle, square, etc.) do not belong solely to mathematics, they express a world harmony, they have a certain magic and moral significance” (4, p.264).
In the wall painting of Bactria-Tokharistan and Sogd, jewelry shapes are frequently rounded: rosette, circle, ball, and (sphere). Rosette as a flower was possibly attributed to Buddhist since worshippers made floral attributes to Buddha. As narrated VIII-X centuries. Kanishka, the tsar, received a prophecy from Buddha to build a sangkhara in a Stupa construction and everybody who will be revived among gods (2, p.71)
Symbolic significances are fixed to definite kinds of jewelry. The belt for example, had an original symbolic significance. Judging from the depictions on the wall painting, belts may be divided into two sorts. On one hand, the belt as an attribute of the social stratus. On the other hand, military rank was also known to be emphasized by belts and rank was depicted according to the materials applied in their making- gold, gilding silver or bronze only. In the middle ages, belts were considered a majestic sign. Central Asian peasants (dehkans) who wished to serve in the tsar’s court appeared with gold belts and kulakhs (hats) to serve (13, p.86).
As for head adornments and especially diadems it should be noted that since the 1st Hellenistic epoch, a head dress had solely a social magic function (14, p.22), the tsar gave gifts of special head adornments to his retainers, as a sign of merit or noble status (15, p.52-53). Historical sources say that the Samarqand ruler wore a gold crown with seven precious stones, while his wife’s coiffure consisted of dark veil gold flowers (16, p.110).
In addition to diadems, gold rings also served to indicate the superior social status of their owners. Rings and earrings were frequently worn on the left hand on the forefinger or middle finger.
”Any adornments may be worn or not except for finger ring, which one should never appear without” (17, p.100)
Earrings were also a symbol originally symbol of protection. In Central Asia, as well as in most of the territories of India, men wore earrings decorated with precious stones. Boys had their ears pierced in childhood. Men “kofirs”, after complicated ceremonies, could take privileged positions and received the right to wear women’s ceremonial earrings, which were worn at the top of the ear.
Tibetan men frequently wore large earrings in the left ear; sometimes they mounted a pearl in the right ear. On Pamir men wore simple annular earrings (18, p.46-47)
Thus , adornment in the period of middle ages, from V-VIII are distinguished from jewelry of earlier times by the stricter geometry of forms, simpler methods, devices and ways of construction , technology elements. During this period, precious and semiprecious stones, especially pearls, were conventional decorative features. This fact is confirmed by wall paintings and clothes.
Men’s adornments, for example, were the regales of the aristocrats in the Middle East (10, p.85). In India they served as an attribute of superior caste and often belonged to deities (Shiva, Panchui Kuvera, Vadjrapani) and bodhisattvas (10. p.85).
The same significance was extended to the characters on the Penjikent and Sogd wall painting, the interrelations between Sogdian and Indian arts of that period are mentioned in various studies.
Thus, V.Shishkin stated that the Sogd and Bactria- Tokharistan art, closely connected with the art of Gandhara and the people of Central Asia. Geographic position played an important part as a medium in art interaction between such distant civilizations as Mesopotamia and India.
Analogies of the wall painting and jewelry may be found in the wall painting throughout the Central Asian region – in Afghanistan, India, and Singtzyang. It is an analogy that is also evident in the cultural economic interactions of the region in V-VIII centuries.
© Elena Neva, PhD
Notes:
- Belenizky,A
a. Zhivopis’ drevnego Penjikenta. Moscow, 1954
b. Sculptura I zhivopis’ drevnego Penjikenta, Moscow, 1959
c. Monumental’noe iskusstvo drevnego Penjikenta, Moscoq, 1973 - Litvinsky B. and Zeimal T. Adjina-tepe,Moscow, 1971
- Albaum L. Balalyk-tepe. Tashkent, 1960
- Gurevich, A. Kategorii srednevekovoi kul’turi. Moscow, 1972
- Dyakonova N. and Smirnova O. K voprosu o kulte Nany v Sogde .Sovetskya Arheologiya, 1976
- Shmit G. Dragozennie kamni, Moscow, 1980
- Borozna N. Nekotorie materiali ob amuletah-ukrasheniah naseleniay Srednei Azii.-Domusul’manskie verovanoya I obryadi Srednei Azii, Moskva, 1975
- Darkevich, V. Simvoli nebesnih svetil v ornamente Drevnei Rusi. Sovetskya Arheologiya, 1960
- Brushan J. Indian jewelry. Bombey
- Pugachenkova G. Gerakl v Bactrii- Vestnik Drevnei istorii, 1977
- Azarpay Guitty. Sogdian Painting, California, 1981
 | Art of Ancient Jewelers The author researching treasures from Central Asia (4 BC-4AD). Readers will go to a fascinating trip to Bactria, became familiar with types and forms of ancient jewelry. Learn more about symbols and semantics behind the images. "Travel" to the past helps better understand the future!
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