Primitive Skin Cloaks Afghanistan 1868 Posteen and Horse Rustlers

Primitive Skin Cloaks from the Stone Age - Posteen and Horse Rustlers  

B. Simpson photographed Colonel Waterfield and his men in Kurum Valley near "Peiwar Valley" Afghanistan in 1878. A Ghilzai Pashtun, wearing a Posteen was recorded standing to the left of the group. Patterned cloth has been used on the outside of the Posteen with the sheepskin lining showing.

When the images of the "Kakur" and "Afghan Horse Dealers" were posted on this blog there were a few questions asked.

"Maybe they're horse rustlers?" Milton Cater

"Our friends in the second image came directly from the “come as you are” party. I somehow trust them more, although they do look like they might be pickpockets, they aren’t pretending otherwise." Monika Neuland Kimrey

Searching high and low I discovered the original notes which accompanied these images published in "The People of India" between 1865 and 1875. The photographers were H.C.B Tanner (Henry Charles Baskerville) and Captian William Robert Houghton. The government of India had commissioned the work and the eight volume set of albums is noted as "being one of the first major ethnographic studies produced by the camera."

Notes accompanying the image "A Kakur Afghan" describe the cloak as "Afghan winter costume, a posteen, or cloth cloak, lined with sheeps' wool, forming a most comfortable wrapper." Posteen is consistent with other similar words used to describe sheep skin bedding rugs like "postak".

Readers of this blog instantly detected the true character of the horse dealers. The following description was given to these dogged traders in "The People of India".  "The independence of character which seems to belong to these persons is, perhaps, not a very sound principle or feeling. The love of money would lead them to sacrifice honour or honesty on most occasions where unlawful gains were obtained with impunity."

The link between pieced skin rugs, Postak, Pashmani and Posteen cloaks indicates that the practice of using animal hides including sheep skin was common in Afghanistan.  From primitive beginnings the wearing of animal skins continued in Central Asian culture throughout the ages, being refined into a patterned and lined cloak, warm and comfortable in the winter, donned by aristocrats and horse rustlers alike. A true Afghan winter "costume".

IMAGES:

Col Waterfield in Uniform and with Sword; And Group of Men in Costume with Sabers and Rifles Outside Tent OCT 1878 DOE Asia: Afghanistan: NM 40922 04420300, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Simpson B. Bourne and Shepherd 1878. Afghanistan Kurum Valley/Peiwar Valley (Near)

Images contained within the collection: The People of India, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.  “A Kakur” Local number: PoI6.322  “Afghan Horse Dealers” Local number: PoI6.332 H.C.B Tanner (Henry Charles Baskerville) and Captian William Robert Houghton

Primitive Eskimo Skin Rugs

Out of Africa into a haze of white and ice

Humans aren't born with thick furry waterproof coats like polar bears. Before the age of petroleum and faux plastic fur - the choice was simple, kill the bear and wear it, graphically illustrated in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back. On planet Hoth, Luke Skywalker is struck from his hairy grey Tauntaun snow lizard by a Wampa Ice Creature. Han Solo comes to rescue Luke. Solo slices his expired Tauntaun from head to toe with Luke's saber, removes the beasts insides and stuffs Luke into the stinking carcass. Science fiction yet the icy vision is potent.

Out of Africa and into a haze of white and ice borrowing the hides of beasts along the way. Wherever and whenever it was colder than Africa, during and after the last ice age, man had to come up with solutions to remain permanently warm. The Yakut in Eastern Siberia used animal skins yet a reindeer is hardly going to provide suitable wool for weaving unlike a yak or fat tailed sheep. When the Yakut moved North they left behind the opportunity to exploit the abundance that primitive pastoralism could provide. Scythian primitive pastoralists shore their herd for wool and weaving. Even further north the possibility of herding and shearing polar bears is nil let alone weaving their shaggy fur into a whiter than white woolen fantasy - hunt them and wear their hides - yes that can be done.

Supremely warm and clad in seal and bearskin from head to toe, a smiling Eskimo girl stands proudly on and in front of her primitive pieced skin rugs of many borders.

Cutting out the white fur patterns, stitching them in sections to the dark fur strips then sewing all the strips together must have taken ages in the whiteout of an Alaskan winter. The technique used can easily be seen the rug on the floor shows both front and back. Some of the parts would appear as if in relief against light or dark colours. This technique is not seen in pieced skin rugs from Eastern Siberia and Central Asia. In Alaska different techniques have independently developed.  In Central Asia pieced skin rugs are more simplistic in design. Yakut pieced skin rugs are mostly deer or reindeer hides stitched together. The Eskimo pieced skin rug takes on the form of a multi-bordered primitive rug the outer border resembles Uzbek Julkhyrs from northern Afghanistan. There is no source of information on the history of these rugs, perhaps the patterning is a natural response to viewing a woven carpet from far away. The image was shot in the 1^st quarter of the 20^th Century. Pieced skin reindeer hide rugs were also made by Eskimo’s and resemble those of the Yakut.

Woven rugs used as floor coverings, is a direction which nomadic primitive pastoralists took when the climate and animal herds were in harmony with the need to weave. The creation of animal skin trappings, floor rugs, bedding, shelters, transport and clothing did not die off because in ideal climates weavers began to weave.

The importance of wool as a resource for weavers is highlighted by the plight of Turkmen weavers in the North of Afghanistan when forced to buy wool from the Kirghiz of the Afghan Pamirs in the early 1970's. The cost of transportation is thrown into the spotlight here.

"felt, horse covers, furs, sheepskins, and wool are also taken to markets. Again the amount of these latter items is small because of the extremely difficult and costly transportation. The demand for wool, however, is very much on the rise because of the increasing international market for Afghan carpets. The need for high quality Kirghiz wool was realised particularly after the 1971-72 drought in northern Afghanistan (one of the main areas of carpet-weaving industry), which devastated the animal population of the area. As a result, during the past few years Turkmen carpet weavers have been coming to the Pamirs solely to buy wool." ¹

Weaving exists where there is an abundance of woolly animals to round up and shear, as a requirement to keep warm or provide practical floor coverings.

Domestic and wild animal skin products are created alongside woven items where both weaving and treating hides is possible.

Independently, animal skin items are made where the opportunity to access an abundant source of shorn wool is limited by climate or distance.

Bibliography 1. Shaharani M. Nazif  The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War University of Washington Press 2002 201

Photograph titled Eskimo Bell - Primitive Eskimo Skin Rugs probably Cape Prince of Wales - Nome Alaska

Title: Eskimo girl wearing clothes of all fur

Other Title: Eskimo bell [i.e. belle] ca 1900-1930

Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsc-02273

Call Number: LOT 11453-2, no. 1

Frank and Frances Carpenter collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

YAKUT PIECED SKIN PRIMITIVE RUG

 

YAKUT PIECED SKIN PRIMITIVE RUG

This Yakut fishing scene could have been recorded in the bronze or early iron age.

The pieced skin rug on the floor of the Yakut fisherman's  conical tent¹ is identical in concept to the primitive pieced skin rugs stitched together by nomads in Central Asia. The rug is probably made from deer skins or reindeer, the fisherman's jacket is also fashioned from softened and stitched animal hides. Sergei Rudenko published an image of a "piece of fur clothing" in Frozen tombs of Siberia The Pazyryk Burials of Iron-Age Horsemen which closely resembles the fisherman's rug and jacket, linking these items and Central Asian pieced skin rugs to the Scythian horsemen.² Apart from the buildings in the background this scene could have been recorded in the bronze or early iron age.

Pieced skin rugs and animal hide products including methods of softening hides are shared by Kirghiz and Yakut. The significance of the continuation of the practice of making pieced skin rugs can be linked back to a time prior to the Yakut moving North into Eastern Siberia and probably pre-dating the early Iron-Age. Kirghiz women in the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan soften the hides³ of Karakol sheep and Yak in preparation for dip dying and stitching pieced skin rugs . Yakut women use similar methods to soften hides, here we see a Yakut women softening the hide of a deer after it's been stripped of it's flesh and dried. The hide is simply softened by applying pressure with the repeated use of a stick over it's surface.

Yakut or Sakha language is firmly rooted in their early history on the steppes further South. Migrating from Olkhon and the region of lake Baikal Northwards to Eastern Siberia. Eventually mixing with Tungusic Evens and Evenki.⁴ Turkic speaking Yakut have assimilated many other words into their language yet retain their Turkic identity through language and other practices.  The practice of reciting epics  like the Yakut Olonko is identical to the Kyrgyz of Kyrgyzstan's proud tradition of the recital of the Epic Manas. Yakut are described as pastoralists like the Kirghiz of Central Asia and the Iron-Age Scythians. Kumys⁵ is a favourite among Yakut at festivals, not unlike Kirghiz of Central Asia who use the same word to describe a type of fermented mares milk.

The image on the right shows a Yakut woman standing on a Yakut pieced skin primitive rug with a display of items used in conjunction with the making and serving of Kumys. She is also wearing traditional tailored animal skin clothing.

Relatively primitive pastoralism.

Nomads and pastoralists have been busily slaughtering animals wild or domestic throughout the ages, making their hides into assorted clothing, bedding, rugs, mats, trappings, shelters, boats, window covers plus many other items. Take a look at the typical inventory of the Scythian animal herd about 2,500 years ago including yaks, horse, large horned cattle, small horned animals, goats and sheep with "slight fat-tails". Scythians hunted wild animals, however this was secondary to their form of "primitive pastoralism". Deer, maral, elk, mountain goats and rams, boars, saiga, antelope, steppe cat, squirrel, sable, otter, ermine, leopard, wolf, roebuck, hare and other ungulates were all unearthed from the icy Pazyryk barrows.⁶

Scythian horsemen kept sheep with "slight fat-tails" which took second place in Scythian economy after horses.⁷ "Primitive pastoralism" practiced by the Scythians , the inclusion of yak and sheep in their herds, the secondary place that hunting took, mirrors the lifestyle of  modern day Kirghiz of the Afghan Pamirs. Yakut not only produce similar animal skin items as the Kirghiz and Scythians, they are pastoralists especially known for breeding horses. A special breed of Yakut horse which can withstand sub zero temperatures sets the Yakut apart from the Evenki and other local ethnic groups.

Yakut Horsemen and Yakut Horses

Historically Yakut share similar ancient burial rituals to the Iron Age Scythian horsemen. Yakut horsemen probably settled in the region around the Lena River of the vast Sakha Republic in Eastern Siberia around the time Iron Age Scythian Horsemen were busy digging out their icy barrows in the Altai mountains. The famed Iron-Age Pazyryk rug, retrieved from the ice and mud by Sergei Rudenko dates from that period.⁸ Yakut burial rituals are similar to those of the Scythians, R.Bravina in a paper for the Arctic Museum discussed recent developments in the study of ancient Yakut burials.

"Some elements of the ritual of burying humans with horses, that is, position of the corpses, number of horses, in-burial installations, orientation to the West etc, show the ancient character of these elements, that were characteristic of the early nomads of Southern Siberia and Central Asia, beginning in the Bronze and early Iron Ages. It seems that horse breeding tribes settled the territory of Yakutia starting in early Iron Age."⁹

Rugs, trappings, bags, cradles and pack covers for sleds were crafted from animal skins by the Yakut and neighbouring Evenki, Eveni and Tungus. Window covers are even fashioned from fish skins by the Evenki. Animal hides used in making pieced skin trappings, rugs and clothing include, reindeer, deer, bear, seal and fish. Also hunted were polar bears and the polar fox.

Conical tents were used by Paleolithic Siberian hunters and favoured by Tungus, Yakut, Evenki and Eveni. Animal skins or birch bark were favoured materials for tent coverings, the Yakut fisherman's small conical tent is covered with straw. Fishing techniques were probably borrowed from neighboring taiga.¹⁰

A favourite animal.

As floor coverings animal skins are not as durable as woven items. Creating intricate patterns is more difficult with animal skins. Clipping  the fur of a hide low would produce an ugly result.  Size of a finished pieced skin rug including the various small pieces of sewn hide is limited, sometimes many small pieces need to be sewn to larger pieces to create a symmetrical rug.

Rudenko unearthed woven rugs which mimic animal skins, they look almost identical to modern Julkhyrs or Tulu.  Woolen cloth with looped pile was unearthed from barrow 2.¹¹ The cloth looks like any looped pile rug woven by nomadic pastoralists today.  Primitive pastoralists had the option to begin weaving their rugs into patterns and shapes which afforded them flexibility in creating custom made items. Floor coverings could still provide warmth and be made to look like a favourite animal. Wool could be dyed and woven into a durable foundation. Size was no restriction and the old way of simply stitching hides together could now be used to stitch long lengths of woven items together. The pile could be clipped low yet still producing an aesthetically pleasing and durable floor covering.

Many varied uses of animal skin items afforded nomads and pastoralists with warmth, shelter and transport, in the form of canoes. To this day nomads and pastoralists create products including rugs from animal hides as well as weaving many varied items including rugs which are facsimile animal hides. It's as if the close bond with the animals that provided so much just can't be broken. Today shaggy floor coverings of all kinds including woven shag rugs and animal hides lay side by side on floors all over the globe, aesthetically pleasing and primitive.

Bibliography

1. Shifting Boundaries: Ice Age Tents http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Culture/Shifting_Boundaries/tents1.html 14/02/11 1:51 PM

2. Sergei I. Rudenko, Frozen tombs of Siberia: The Payzryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen Berkley and Los Angeles University Press, 1970. Illustrations 132 1; E,

3. Dor, R. & Neumann, C. Die Kirghisen des Afghanischen Pamir

Akademische Druck- u. Verlanganstalt, Graz 1978 86-87

4. http://altaic-wiki.wikispaces.com/Manchu+Tungusic+Peoples

5. Sommer. J, Akmoldoeva. B Klavdiya Antipina Ethnographer of the Kyrgyz Spring Hill Press McKinleyville, California. 2002 262

kumuss, koumiss Fermented mare's milk. A drink. Also: " kumuss",  koumuss."

6. Sergei I. Rudenko, loc. cit.59

7. Sergei I. Rudenko, loc. cit. 57

8. Sergei I. Rudenko,loc. cit. 302

9. Bravina. R, Traditional culture of the Sakha peoples according to archaeological monuments in museums of Yakutia http://arcticmuseum.com/ Media Collection Web: 3 February 2011, 3.32 PM

10. Edward J. Vajda http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ea210/yakut.htm

11. Sergei I. Rudenko, loc. cit. Illustrations 134 3; C,

Photograph of Yakut Fisherman used by permission William Brumfield.

"Brumfield Photograph Collection" (http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/res/273_brum.html). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-05276 (digital file from original)

For more detailed information on the Yakut and Evenki go to http://www.arcticmuseum.com/

Lizhnyk history and the other long piled Kover or Kots

Lizhnyk and the other long-piled Ukarainian primitive rug the "kover or kots".

In the Ukraine a knotted long-piled rug tradition exists. Knotted rugs with long pile known as the kover or kots were woven in the Ukraine up to the nineteenth century, resembling Tulu from Anatolia and other eastern European long-piled rugs. A completely different technique is used to create the kover or kots by comparison to lizhnyk's woven by Hutsuls in the Carpathian mountains. The lizhnyk is a flat weave which is then felted by the action of water in a valylo. These two types of long-piled weavings from the Ukraine are so distinctly different, their early origins are brought into question. One has long knotted pile, the other felted faux long-pile. Knotted long-pile carpets known as the kover, kots, or koberets were described by Vasyleva in  Embroidery of Polissya, Artistic Fabrics, Carpet-Making, "Kover, kots, koberets were fabrics with long sheared nap. In the process of their manufacture special knots of colored wool were tied to warp threads, with their subsequent shearing. Owing to that the pattern was created only on the right side. The pattern's character depended on the height and thickness of the nap."  According to Vasyleva these long-piled weavings were used by the "well-to-do population" for wall decoration also serving as insulation. Vasyleva states that home production was to satisfy the needs of the general population with workshop production creating more expensive versions.¹ The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe advises that  "kots are handmade in the western, mainly Hutsul region".² Outside of the Ukraine these kots or kover long-piled knotted primitive rugs are almost unknown.

Confined today to the Carpathians, Nykorak contends that, "long - piled carpets" called lizhnyk were woven all over the Ukraine before the end of the 19th century. The kover or kots were also widespread throughout the Ukraine up to the end of the nineteenth century. Nykorak also refers to surviving lizhnyk production in the Carpathians, "before the end of the 19th century lizhnylc were spread and produced all over Ukraine, having survived in the Carpathians only."³ The valylo a key requirement in the creation of lizhnyk could be a factor in lizhnyk resurgence in the region.  Architectural relics, valylo need to be in working order so that the fibres of the lizhnyk can be successfully matted.

Revival of lizhnyk production during the twentieth century is reminiscent of the story of siirt blankets produced in the province and town of Siirt in Eastern Turkey, as well as alpujarra inlaid loop pile rugs from the province of Granada Spain, all serving the tourist trade in their respective regions.

Once widespread throughout all of the Ukraine, the need for shaggy, warm woollen textiles was met by both home and workshop production.  The kots or kover appears to have been relegated to the history books with production ceasing sometime late in the nineteenth century. The lizhnyk remaining a favourite with production continuing today, preserving along with it the practice of felting woven items with the action of water in a valylo.

Read more on Kots click here.

For further information on the valylo, you can also use the keyword Валило.

Thanks to T. Kara Vasyleva and Olеna Nykorak we can gain some further insight into the production of these obscure weavings.

1. T. Kara Vasylyeva Doctor of Science in Fine Arts Embroidery of Polissya, Artistic Fabrics, Carpet-Making 

http://www.ukrfolk.com.ua/polissya/POL_ENG/POL_ENG%2811%29.htm#1

"Carpets produced at home were aimed at satisfaction of population's needs. The first guild organizations emerged in Ukrainian towns in the XIV-XV centuries, in the XVI-XVII centuries their activity reached its peak, and since the XVIII century weaving manufactories [sic] started to develop actively. They emerged on the basis of carpet-making workshops, which were attached to landowners' estates. At the olden [sic] times depending on the manufacturing technique and functional purpose carpet ware in Ukraine had different names: kover /carpet/, koberets, kots, nalavnyk /bench top cover/, kylym /carpet/, etc. The most ancient name is "kover", since the XVI century the names "kots", "lizhnyk" were spread. The name "kylym" /the present Ukrainian word for "carpet"/ appeared in Ukraine at the beginning of the XVII century. Kover, kots, koberets were fabrics with long sheared nap. In the process of their manufacture special knots of colored wool were tied to warp threads, with their subsequent shearing. Owing to that the pattern was created only on the right side. The pattern's character depended on the height and thickness of the nap. Such manufactured articles cost much, they were mostly used by well-to-do population for the purpose of heat insulation and decoration of walls. Lizhnyks made of coarse threads were very widespread. Nalavnyks - long narrow carpets having crosswise or lengthwise ornament - were also in demand. Carpets proper were used first of all to decorate the walls, as well as to cover tables, benches, chests. Weavers paid special attention to their ornamentation; it was the ornamentation that most fully showed the taste and the skill."

2. "Kots" The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe. Web. 2 November 2011 http://www.mfa.gov.ua/coe/en/publication/content/294.htm

3. Olеna NYKORAK Shevchenko Scientific Society Lviv Traditional Ukrainian Lizhnykarstva 1995 "The 16-17th-century archival and other data give us evidence about the production of lizhnylcs (home woven thick woollen long-piled carpets) in the Ukrainian Carpathian region, Bukovyna, Volynia, Polissia, as well as in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions.  On the basis provided by the field exploration data, gathered by the author herself, and the examination of the museum exhibits, the author contends that before the end of the 19th century lizhnylc were spread and produced all over Ukraine, having survived in the Carpathians only. Since the turn of the 20th century in Hutsulshchyna, and since the middle of this century, in Boikivshchyna, the koverets (a patterned lizhnyk) came into production alongside with the achromatic, polychromatic, striped and one-colour lizhnyks, already in common use. Its most characteristic patterns are geometrical: transversely striped, net-like, and medallion-shaped. Nowadays the most ingenious compositions of lizhnyks and lizhnyk-like chair-covers are designed after typical Hutsul embroideries and cloths."