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Silver 'tepelik' (woman's felt hat cover). Late-Ottoman, ca. 1850-1900. On exhibit in the National Museum of Ethnography, in Ankara). (© Dick Osseman). southern Anatolia
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  • The museum doesn't mention a geographical origin.  Striking similarity with some hats from the Tarsus Museum makes identification possible: from southern Anatolia (Urfa, Antep, Hatay, Adana provinces). 

  • It's very beautiful and elaborate. I love the filigree dangles.  Do you know what the circles with filigree inside them symbolize?

  • 2506040347?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024Hello Lynn,

    I don't have specific information about a possible symbolic significance of the dangles.

    But, if I were to give one, and regarding the geographic provenance of the tepelik (which is made in a region where Kurdish culture is strongly present since Antiquity), I would say it could be a sun symbol.  In Kurdish culture, the sun is an ancestral religious symbol (see: Yezidis) and stands for the source of life.  In the countryside, many Kurdish homes have/had a sun amulet hanging from the wall (even if the inhabitants are Muslims since centuries).   I add a picture of one (some are rhombic, some are circular).

    Of course, after all, this is (about the dangles) a kind of 'wild guess' (even if the sun symbolism of the Kurds is real).   Best greetings, JM.

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