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 Anatolian
jewelry transcends time with its technical elaboration distilled from
millennia, its depth concealed in details and the richness of designs
that trace multitudinous cultures…
Jewelry was born 30 thousand years ago in the silence of death. When
human beings realized that the breath that went silent by their side
would not return, maybe to bless the deceased one last time, to assure
that he would be in peace where he went or to protect him from the evils
of darkness, placed in graves, strings of beads, bracelets and rings
made out of stones, horns, bones and sea shells.
Then to fend off unbeatable evils or perils, they adorned their necks,
arms, hands, heads and feet with ornaments; offered them to their gods.
They saw that their reflection on volcanic glass was changed, more beautiful
with ornaments…After that moment of stepping beyond religion,
they never took them off again; in the beauty of ornaments, they found
their own beauty. While passing quietly through time, they embellished
them with the brightest, most dazzling mines and stones. 6000 years
ago, on these lands, they discovered that they could work the most amazing
mine, and hence gold outshone all precious mines and stones; it became
indispensable for jewelry. Beyond everything else, beyond all religious
motives and attempts to look beautiful, gold jewelry offered human beings
the tangible sign of their abstract stature in the society they lived.
THE LIGHT THAT SHONE 5000 YEARS AGO
This was how the goldsmith profession that produces jewelry from precious
stones, evolved. Toddling for a millennium, it emerged as a real craft
in 3000 B.C. with pieces of jewelry astoundingly beautiful, carved like
embroidery. The brightest and most accomplished ornamental objects dated
2600-2000 B.C. were found in Troy, Eskiyapar and Alacahöyük.
Each one of the brooches, necklaces, pins, bracelets, diadems and dual
gold idols (used as belts or dressing decorations) made from gold, silver,
agate, quartz crystals, etc. found in prince tombs qualified as works
of art.
Sites from the same period, Karaz in Eastern Anatolia, Beycesultan and
Semayük in Western Anatolia, Kuruçay in Göller Bölgesi,
Kusura in Geçis, Demircihöyük, Polatli, Karaoglan,
Karahöyük around Konya, Aslantepe in Malatya, Tarsus in Çukurova,
Tilmenhöyük and Gedikli in Islahiye, Pulur, Norsuntepe and
Tepecik in South Eastern Anatolia signify the advanced level that the
people of Anatolia reached even in that time in design and casting work.
The techniques of granulation and filigree used in Trojan gold jewelry
point to more advanced goldsmith work.
At the turn of the Bronze Age, Assyrian traders who had set up trade
colonies in Anatolia in 2000-1200 B.C. became interested in the mines
of gold, silver and copper. They exchanged these for the valuable goods
they brought from Mesopotamia. Communication opportunities sparked by
trade introduced the Mesopotamian culture to ancient craftsmen in Anatolia.
These craftsmen managed to melt the motifs and themes they came across
in the context of their world and forged a common style.
ART OF JEWELRY RISING IN WESTERN ANATOLIA
 Examples
of Anatolian jewelry that survived to our day from days of the Hittite
power are unfortunately too scarce: only the gold sealed ring, golden
“seated goddess” amulet, gold plates for closing the eyes
and mouths of the dead in tombs or for wrapping around arms and wrinkles
and ear gags placed in ears were found in Bogazköy…
Jewelry created from precious mines and stones after 900 B.C. reclaimed
its old glory in the civilizations to the middle and west of Anatolia.
There, as jewelry making proliferated, the technique became more proficient.
Though not many examples have remained to our day, the most important
contribution of Phrygia, the Central Anatolian state in the second half
of 8th century B.C., to the art of goldsmiths was fibulae which had
a unique form.
Western Anatolian cities were the trade centers of the ancient world.
Their craftsmen accomplished an Orientalizing synthesis by fusing the
art of the west and the east. Between the end of the 8th century B.C.
and beginning of the 7th century B.C. they used eastern motifs in their
jewelry from precious metals and ivory. The Lydian capital, Sardis was
the guiding light of the goldsmith craft in this process. In this city
where there was a gold refinery acquiring pure gold for the first time
by chemical processes, gold jewelry was produced by a high degree of
technical mastership employing ivory carving and precious or semi-precious
stones.
In the next two centuries the goldsmith craft peaked in western Anatolia.
In jewelry made with pure gold or at a carat very close to pure gold,
many goldsmith techniques such as casting, repousse, filigree and granulation
were used in unison. The most adept examples were found in the offering
pit of Ephesus Artemis Temple and around Usak. The cult of worshipping
goddess Artemis intermingled with worshipping the mother goddess of
Anatolia inspired new religious rituals in the Hellenic homeland and
influenced the art of jewelry. The three different characters attributed
to the goddess, being the universal guardian of civilization, ruler
of nature and the queen bee was symbolized in the motifs of sparrow
hawk, crescent and bee in jewelry. The bee emblem was used in earrings,
appliqués, brooches and pinheads; the crescent appeared in earrings
and “sarkaç” (decorations hanging loosely from the
ceiling in which you can put flowers or incense burners, etc.); the
sparrow hawk was found in brooches and sarkaç.
THE WEALTH OF URARTU
During the same period (900-600 B.C.), the leading cities of the Urartu
kingdom, centered in Van were Altintepe, Patnos, Adilcevaz and Toprakkale.
Gold earrings, agate and amber necklaces and especially buttons unearthed
from the prince tombs, temples, palaces and storages in these cities
constituted the most beautiful examples of the granulation technique.
Urartus were the masters of this difficult goldsmith technique. The
necklace locket in the form of three horse heads, gold earrings in the
shape of fish and rings, silver bracelets with dragonheads all rich
with granulation manifest their virtuosity in working with precious
metals.
Anatolian jewelry from the Archaic and classic periods had an impressiveness
construed skillfully from simplicity. Worked with filigree and enameling
techniques, plant motifs were set in garlands, pomegranate, oak acorn
and animal heads in pendants. The crescent, the symbol of the moon goddess,
was everywhere in Anatolia as it was in all cultures of Asia Minor.
PERSIANS’ COLORING OF JEWELRY
From 545 B.C., western and eastern cultures were interwoven once more
in Persian ruled Anatolia; this time jewelry went under Persian influence.
Jewelry of this ubiquitous period was characterized by semi-precious
stones and glass imitations of these in all colors. At the goldsmith
centers of Sardis and Lampsakos on the Dardanelles, triangular, diamond
motifs and triangular pyramid decorations were very common.
THE GLORY OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD
The ensuing Hellenistic period was an era when the art of jewelry and
goldsmith craft reached its zenith in Anatolia. Throughout the Archaic
and Classical Ages jewelry used to be very rarely made and almost exclusively
as offerings for graves and temples, but in this period it found its
way to people’s daily lives. The finding of rich mine reserves
in Thrace and the stocks of gold and silver piled in Persian treasures
goaded the affinity for the most tempting of the worldly pleasures.
The jewelry of the Hellenistic period had plenty of human and animal
figures and was enriched by granulation and filigree. Moreover, during
this period, the precious metals or semi-precious stones on jewelry
were replaced by precious stones. Emeralds, rubies, agate, aquamarine,
garnet, carneol, sard, plasma, amethyst, etc. carried to Anatolia by
the eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great were planted onto Hellenistic
period jewelry. There were disparities in motifs, too; Figures of Maenad,
Eros, depictions of black figures, heads of animals like lions, bulls,
deer were frequently used. The fashion of the time was jewelry with
the Hercules knot…
THE ‘STAMPA’ AND ‘SAVAT’ OF ROME
In the Roman era, Anatolian jewelry initially stayed true to the goldsmith
traditions of the Hellenistic period. Still, the use of pearls, jasper
and glass and the beginning of colored inlaying coincided with this
era. But Roman goldsmiths really created forms and techniques unique
to them between A.D. 200-400. Alexandria and Antakya, goldsmith centers
in the Hellenistic period maintained their status but the capital of
the empire contrived its own goldsmith school. During this era, the
most beautiful examples of gold and precious stone combinations were
produced and they became popular. In contrast to the exceedingly complicated
and elegant Hellenistic style, Roman jewelry was marked by plainness.
Roman goldsmiths improved their craft further by two techniques they
developed, the “stampa” and “savat”. Also typical
to this period were coins used in necklaces and bracelets with animal
heads and plant motifs.
THE BYZANTINE ‘ENAMEL’
The jewelry tradition of Byzantium, the successor of the divided Roman
Empire on Anatolian territory, was the fruit of two strong undercurrents
prevailing in art. The first one was the capital style, an ornate, rich
and glittery art undercurrent favored by the court and notables, anchored
in old traditions of art, fine, delicate where at times even elements
foreign to Christianity chimed in. The other was the provincial style,
a primitive and insipid approach to art that ignored beauty of form,
was based on religious themes and considered art as an expression of
religion…But in both styles, motifs in polytheist religions were
superseded by other motifs in the wake of Christianity; divergent techniques
prevailed in the goldsmith craft.
In the early periods of the Byzantine Empire, jewelry making was a continuity
of Roman goldsmith forms and techniques. Distinct forms, designs and
techniques developed after the 6th century when Constantinople turned
into a goldsmith center. In this, glassmakers’ and goldsmiths’
exemption from tax by Emperors Theodosius II and Valentinus III played
a massive role. To develop the goldsmith craft which was tied to the
court, masters were brought from Alexandria and Antakya so that a Byzantine
style would emerge. In flamboyant jewelry made from precious mines,
gold, precious and semi-precious stones and organic substances, a novel
enameling technique was developed by Byzantine goldsmiths.
Just like the Anatolian peoples preceding them, Byzantines put on jewelry
to be protected from evils and a show of their religiousness besides
decoration and exhibiting their wealth. As original products amalgamated
Roman and Hellenistic traditions with Christianity, Byzantine jewelry
impinged on the goldsmith craft of the West as well as the Seljuks and
Ottomans who succeeded them in Anatolia.
THE ORIGINALITY THAT CAME ALONG WITH TURKMEN JEWELRY
But the most original hallmark in the journey of jewelry in Anatolia
was the one brought by Turkmen tribes who had arrived on these lands
with Seljuks. The Turkmen jewelry tradition ingrained in Central Asia
relied on a most intricate art with deep-running roots, heaving with
unknown secrets. The way of mounting precious stones on jewelry produced
by simple tools of traditional technology and geometric forms reflected
the originality of the Turkmen jewelry tradition.
“Selpeli gulpa” placed on top of the jewelry, “manlaylik”
put on the forehead, “selpe” for the hair, buttons, pins
for the neck, “gargilik”, beads, “gülyaka”s
in various sizes, “tumar”s, “selpe”s put on
the chest, “alkim çenge”s, sound making buttons,
bracelets for the arms, rings, “çapraz” put on the
caftan and hair pins, each one with ethnologically different meanings…
Turkmen jewelry was reminiscent of iron clothes of old warriors. Silver
“gupha” in the shape of a dome, “çekkelik”
with silver suspenders going down till cheeks at the borders of “tahiye”
and “yeginlik” with the suspender behind the neck looked
like a military headwear. The wide chest decorations “gülyaka”,
“dagdun” and “blukuv” resembled the chest armor
of soldiers with silver “apbas”.
In Seljuk times, gold and silver jewelry was made more in Konya and
Alaiye. In the framework of Islamic restraints, gold jewelry was limited
almost entirely to women. But the tradition of giving gifts incited
the production of a variety of objects from precious mines.
THE PINNACLE OF THE ANATOLIAN JEWELRY TRADITION: THE
OTTOMANS
Until the Ottoman period, all kinds of precious mines, stones and embellishing
techniques were tried in Anatolia and an assortment of forms were developed.
Ottomans inherited an extremely rich tradition of jewelry hatched by
invasions that had lasted for thousands of years and migrations. There
was one thing left for them to do: to take the art of jewelry to the
apex. They did just that.
As the power of the Ottoman Empire heightened, the significance of the
goldsmith craft also increased. With the historical and cultural wealth
it had inherited, the Ottoman goldsmith craft absorbed the backdrops
of the extensive geography of the Empire. Outside of the capital city
of Istanbul in places like Trabzon, Samsun, Sivas, Van, Erzurum, Erzincan,
Gümüshane, Bitlis, Kula, Eskisehir, Diyarbakir, Mardin, Midyat,
Sam, Halep, Kibris and Prizren, precious mines were processed with different
techniques.
The most important characteristic of the goldsmith masters of especially
Istanbul who deftly passed on the synthesis of the Empire to jewelry
was their application of natural stones without tampering with their
natural forms as much as possible; instead of fitting the stone to the
shape of the jewelry, they fit the jewelry to the shape of the stone.
Besides classical Ottoman motifs of flowers, branches, birds, the moon,
crescents and such naturalist elements, as the empire expanded, eastern
motifs surfaced under the influence of the eastern Herat and early Safavi
styles and after the 18th century Western style motifs of ships, bowknots,
coat of arms etc. became apparent.
Jewelry that was simpler in early periods then turned into an inseparable
part of clothing and became more and more ostentatious. Jewelry types
of aigrettes, crowns put on headdresses, head bands, necklaces, pins,
garlands, earrings, bracelets, rings, archers’ thumb stalls, seals,
orders, anklets, armlets, buttons, clasps, chains, watches, fetters,
belts, belt buckles were pieces most preferred. Ottoman precious stones
were not only used in jewelry but also in decorating objects like Quran
covers, suspenders, swords, daggers, scimitar, clubs, rifles, prayer
beads, glasses, flasks, bowls, mugs, decanters, containers, boxes, chests,
chandeliers, censers, rose water flasks, spoons, hookahs, writing sets,
fans, mirrors, combs, whips, archers’ cases for arrows and Kaaba
gifts. Big pieces made of gold, silver and other precious metals-thrones,
cradles, covers, caftans, armors, horse harnessing sets- symbolized
the power of the Ottoman Empire.
Goldsmith masters brought from the Balkans and Iran and much later Armenian
masters joined Turkish masters in applying techniques of inlaying, chiseling,
engraving, niello, filigree, wickerwork, and studding. The most significant
feature of the resulting jewelry was the diversity echoing the pluralist
structure of the Empire. Apart from putting together very different
pieces, there was a coexistence of contrasting colors in great harmony
epitomizing the uniqueness of the Ottoman Empire.
The future of the Turkish goldsmith craft is thus concocted today on
this magnificent jewelry tradition of Anatolia. The elaboration of goldsmith
techniques that are distilled from millennia, the depth concealed in
details and the richness of the designs that track cultures, which were
transformed as they crossed roads with each other are a legacy to goldsmiths
living on these lands. It is them who now carry on with the journey
of Anatolian jewelry from tomb chambers to palaces…
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