A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.

Two bracelets and two triangular ‘muskalık’ (amulet-boxes) from the Yörük and Türkmen villages* of the Çukurova plain (east of Adana). Late-Ottoman era, ca. 1900. Silver. On exhibit in the Tarsus Museum. (© Dick Osseman).*: according to the museum’s assertion.
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Comments

  • The amulet boxes are also superb!

  • The upper amulet box is fantastic! With kind regards. Peter

  • Lovely pieces, Jean-Marie. But it's interesting that although the Museum attributes these to the Yoruk and Turkmen villages, there are so few (if any) features that we normally associate with Turkmen jewellery. I see you have written 'according to the museum's assertion'. Does that mean you have your own reservations?

  • To Thelma: Thanks a lot for your comment.  To answer your questions:

    1) Most of the old Turkish tribes living in Anatolia (Yörük, Türkmen, and many others) arrived many centuries ago.  The Anatolian Yörük and Türkmen are two branches of a common ancestral group, which is related to the Central Asian Türkmens (from Türkmenistan, North Arghanistan, etc.);  but that relationship is (both in time & space) so far away, that their respective cultures have drifted apart from each other.  That is why the Türkmen clothing & jewelry from Anatolia are totally different from the Türkmenistan ones.

    2) As to my own reservations, they are of another nature.  If some of the jewelry came from Syrian-Arab or Kurdish homes (which is possible in the Çukurova plain), this information may be kept hidden by the Museum authorities.  The Turkish state has a long history of problematic relations with its (former and contemporary) non-Turkish minorities: 'Rum' (Anatolian Greeks), Armenians, Assyrians (Eastern Orthodox Christians), Syro-Arabs, Kurds, etc., etc.  And since the provincial museums depend on the Turkish Ministry of Culture... 

    With kind regards, JM.

  • I absolutely love the amulet boxes. tha top one is just fantastic.

    i so very much understand what you are meaning by this political, almost ideological, interference of authourities with sane cultural historical researches.

    Post ottoman turkey is a good example of such intereferences.

    I will post a picture of a pair of temporal/earrings and would love to have your toughts about them Jean -Marie. Thank you

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