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We have a vast collection of images here which have been shared over the years ...
Click on an image to see the discussions around the piece.
Enjoy!
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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?
Hello 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.