Ladakh Lointain

Ladakh Lointain

by | Cultures & People, Reviews

A journey in photographs

Ladakh Lointain

Published on August 14, 2024

A massive book with hundreds of photos from a corner of the world that is not too often addressed: Ladakh, in the northernmost part of India. This book is the result of three journeys made between 1979 and 1981.

Ladakh Lointain: a personal journey

Photographs made during three private journeys form the basis of this huge and heavy book: 600 pages, hardbound, a volume that weighs several kilos. The photo below will give you an idea of this massive book, with a few rings added for scale.

Ladakh Lointain means ‘Distant Ladakh’ in French: distant, both because of the actual distance, but also because the photos included in the book show Ladakh as it was 50 years ago.

The photos were taken by Anne-Marie and Roland Gillion Crowet, and if that name rings a bell, that makes sense: the Gillion Crowets avidly collected jewellery, and you may have seen the book Berber Memories on their splendid collection of Amazigh jewellery from Morocco.

Ladakh Lointain: the outline

The book is divided into three main parts, organised roughly geographically, but also thematically. Each part starts with an introduction on the region, and mixes general historical research with personal memories. That makes the texts a highly personal read – the book expressly states that it does not aim to be a scholarly publication, but rather an annotated collection of photos. In that respect, it is different from the detailed and well-researched Berber Memories – it’s another genre.

First, the focus is on photos of the landscape and architecture of Ladakh. The second part zooms in on photos of the Ladakhi people themselves, and in the third part images of monasteries and festival are central. That is a very loose division, by the way, you will find all subjects in all parts, but the emphasis is slightly different in each part.

The photos themselves take up most of the book, and here its large format works so well! Having travelled on the other side of the Himalaya myself, through the Pamir, the Wakhan-corridor and along the border with Afghanistan, seeing the sweeping landscapes brought a sense of recognition.

Journeys into Ladakh

I read this book in tandem with another publication of travel photographs: the photos taken by German traveller Otto Honigmann, who visited Kashmir, Ladakh and Baltistan [1] in 1911 and 1912. Completely by coincidence, this book, too, is written by a relative: the granddaughter of Honigmann’s second wife researched his travels and published his photos in 2010. [2]

Both books start with a map of the journey made. In Ladakh, the Gillion Crowets and Honigmann largely followed the same trail along the Wakha river until Mulbekh, and after that over land towards Khaltse on the Indus river. Both journeys then follow the Indus until Leh, where their paths split. So, even though the book with 1911-1912 photos is considerably smaller, that leaves room for comparisons!

Changing Ladakh

Just one example of both books illustrates the importance of this publication. That is Leh, the ancient royal town, which has always been a crossroads of cultures.

When Honigmann travelled here, he mentioned a summer market filled with people from ‘all over India, Turkestan, Tibet, Siberia and the far ends of Central Asia’. [3] Its inhabitants were speaking Hindustani, Tibetan and Turkish, and were Buddhists, Muslims, Hindu’s and Sikhs.

Almost a century later, in 2008, Nathalie de Merode writes in Ladakh Lointain, Leh was at the verge of disappearing – the photos taken in 1979 still showing the town inhabited and bustling.

This is just one example of why photos, notes taken and memories relived of personal collections are very relevant to keep and publish. They add to historical resources in a myriad of ways, particularly because every photographer has their own interests. For Anne-Marie Gillion, that was people and adornment.

Ladakhi jewellery and dress

One chapter is devoted to personal adornment in particular. This chapter focuses mainly on the perak, the iconic headdress of Ladakh but also, in different forms, worn in parts of current-day Pakistan, as the images by Otto Honigmann show, and in larger parts of the Western Himalaya. [4] This is illustrated with dozens of photos, including details, and is just splendid to look at.

But throughout the book, you will find a treasure trove of dress and adornment because of the personal interest of the photographer. From small kids with chunky turquoises attached to their hat, festive ladies attending the festival of Phyang, a man spinning wool on the go in Leh…there is so much to see in this book.

Ladakh Lointain – an important resource for dress and adornment

The photographs gathered in Ladakh Lointain are tribute to a region and its people that have since changed considerably. For the study of adornment and dress, this is a particularly important volume because of its often-candid photos: you will see people from all walks of life, going about their daily business, attending a festival, sitting in front of their home…I may be a bit of a nerd, but I spent many hours peering over photographs with a magnifier, taking in details of jewellery and dress.

It’s also a book that gets one thinking: how many more photo-albums are out there, that no one gets to see? Like the personal archive of drawings of Tuareg culture that I discussed earlier, this personal archive, too, presents us with a unique view on the recent past and as such forms an important historic source. And not just for people interested in other cultures, but also for the Ladakhi people themselves.

Like the earlier publication by the same publisher, Berber Memories, this book, too, is very reasonably priced. If you are working in any capacity with the history of the Western Himalaya, this collection of private photographs is highly recommended!

More about Ladakh Lointain

Ladakh Lointain By Nathalie de Merode and Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet (2024). 600 pages, full-colour, in French. Published by Mercator Fonds: see here for more information and ordering.

I received the book as review copy.

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References

[1] Baltistan is now partly Pakistan, partly India.

[2] Appel, M. 2010. Kashmir, Ladakh, Baltistan. Fotografien von Otto Honigmann. Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich.

[3] Appel 2010, p. 18-19.

[4] Weihreter, H. 1988. Schmuck aus dem Himalaja, p. 110-115.

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S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

Jewellery throughout life

Jewellery throughout life

by | Cultures & People

A journey from baby to grandma

Jewellery throughout life

Published March 08, 2024

Jewellery will tell you so much about a woman’s journey through life: from infancy, through adolescence, to adulthood. Some jewellery is only worn by unmarried girls, others by married women only while other pieces indicate motherhood. So how does that work?

Ethnic jewellery and children

For children, jewellery often doubles as an amulet. Child mortality used to be very high in the past, and children would not grow beyond their first year in a sad number of cases. They were believed to be killed by jinn, who were envious of a mother’s most cherished hope. Many amulets are made specifically for children. See a case of protection against such an evil jinn in this article.

Hyena’s claws set in silver, coral beads, bells and tassels are all used to protect the child. A very often seen amulet is a blue glass bead, pinned on the inside of the child’s clothing, or on its cap. An example is in the gallery above: click to enlarge the photos and see a variety of jewellery for kids.

Apart from amulets, jewellery for children also formed the basis of their very own ‘piggy bank’. On festive occasions, or when there was money to spare, a girl would receive small pieces of jewellery.

Ethnic jewellery and adolescence

Jewellery is also used in transition stages. When a girl becomes eligible for marriage, she will start to wear jewellery that communicated her status.

Girls in the Siwa oasis, Egypt, receive a special pendant when they are eligible for marriage: the round silver disc known as adrim or ‘virgin’s disc’. This heavy disc, finely decorated with geometrical designs, fish, birds or floral motifs, is worn until marriage. Persistent tradition has it that these discs would be thrown in the local well in the oasis after marriage: instead of throwing such a valuable item away, it was presented to a younger sister or female relative. [1]

Photocollage of a vintage photo of a Baluch Lady from Muscat and the Muscat cityscape, made by Sigrid van Roode

Ethnic jewellery and marriage

Marriage is also clearly marked by special jewellery. Both the event itself and the married phase afterwards see a distinct use of jewellery: a married woman wears more, and different, jewellery than an unmarried girl. See more about dowry jewellery in this post.

It is important to realise that the transition from an unmarried to a married existence is not only visible in jewellery, but equally clearly marked in costume and hairstyle. From the day of marriage, women will wear other jewellery, clothing different in colour, model or even both, and wear their hair in a style reserved for married women.

Silver and coral necklace from Libya, showing two fish in the central pendant. These were believed to bring good luck and abundance.

Ethnic jewellery and motherhood

The next phase, when a wife also becomes a mother, calls for specific jewellery items too. In Egypt and Libya, the salhayat or salhat pendant is worn by mothers. Traditional lore has it that the tip of the pendant is often broken off if the wearer gives birth to a son. This however is unlikely, as the ornaments would be too precious to damage in this way. Probably, the tip of such a pendant was broken off when the wearer needed money. [2]

In Kabylia, Algeria, a round brooch abundantly decorated with enamel and coral, the tabzimt, is given to a new mother by her husband. [3]

And these are just two examples: there are gifts of jewellery to celebrate the birth of a child throughout the region.

Ethnic jewellery and old age

And finally, in the evening of her life, if she is widowed, a woman will be wearing only a few items such as bracelets or rings. That is because, during her lifetime, she will have sold most of it to cover expenses, or pay for the wedding of sons (see how that works here).

Ethnic jewellery throughout life

Each tribe, village, region and country has its own silver jewellery code. But jewellery is much more than that. It accompanies a child safely through the early years of its existence, it signals that a girl is ready to get married and it proudly displays the wealth of a new bride.

All the jewellery a woman has received during her life, from the tiny pendants when she was a child to the more sizeable pieces she is entitled to as a married woman and a mother, form her own personal asset. These two aspects are inseparable: following the jewellery over the course of a lifetime is following the journey of the wearer herself.

Enroll in an online course! Four images of four different, colourful online courses on jewellery of North Africa & the Middle East.

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References

[1] See for example Weissenberger, M., 1998. Les bijoux des oasis égyptiennes, in: Bliss, F. 1998. Artisanat et artisanat d’art dans les oasis du desert occidental egyptien, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln, Fahmy, A.  2007. Enchanted Jewelry of Egypt. The traditional art and craft. American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, Bliss, F. 1998. Siwa, die Oase des Sonnengottes. Beitrage zur Kulturkunde Band 18. PAS, Bonn. Persistent legend has it that these discs were flung in a local well upon marriage, but the item is far too valuable to be simply thrown away. I mean, really, you would not toss your creditcard into a well when you got married either, would you?

[2] Can’t repeat this often enough! See Vale, M.M. 2011. Sand and Silver. Jewellery, Costume and Life in Siwa Oasis. York Publishing Services, York, p. 91.

[3] See Tamzali, W. 1984. Abzim. Parures et Bijoux des femmes d’Algerie. Dessain et Tolra, Entreprise algerienne de presse, Algers. However, this custom is disputed: the tabzimt can also be part of the dowry gift and not necessarily be reserved only for the birth of a son.

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S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

Decoding Habiba’s jewellery

Decoding Habiba’s jewellery

by | Cultures & People

Travelling with Alexine Tinne

Decoding Habiba’s jewellery

Published March 01, 2024

Dutch traveller and photographer Alexine Tinne did not travel on her own. She had gathered a large group of people around her, and many of these are known by name. One of her companion travellers was Habiba. And from her photos, we may learn more about her as a person.

Habiba: travelling with Alexine Tinne

Habiba was photographed as a traveling companion, both by Alexine herself and by photographers in towns they visited. The photo above (click to enlarge it) was made in Naples, for example. We know her name because it was added to her photos in some cases. She is in several photographs of Alexine’s group, and also features in Alexine’s letters back home.

Read more about her life and photographs in this article.

Where she came from however, is never mentioned. Her jewellery may provide a clue, so let’s have a look at that!

Decoding jewellery: Habiba’s earrings

From a hand-coloured photograph in the municipal archives of The Hague (click to enlarge it), it would appear as if her jewellery was of gold. As all photographs in these days were black and white, it’s difficult to tell if this was actually the case.

Her earrings are of a very specific type. This type of earring was worn in the western oases of Egypt. Nowadays, they are notably associated with Bahariya Oasis. Their name is halaq saqawi, meaning ‘earrings that look like a whater-wheel’. [1] Fahkry suggests the inhabitants of the oases may have purchased them from the Fayyum, or even Cairo. [2]

Although these are most often in silver, they also existed in gold: according to Weissenberger, the difference between gold and silver earrings is that the dome of gold earrings would be executed in filigree. [3]

In Habiba’s time, these earrings were already described by Edward Lane. He does not attribute them to the western oases specifically, however: Lane observed daily life most often in and around Cairo. [4]

Such an earring in gold is shown in the gallery above. The tiny turquoise [5] in the centre of both earrings would keep the evil eye at a distance, as would the glittering of gold in the sunlight and the constant swaying of the dangles. The small discs of sheet gold catch and reflect the light: imagine how sparkling that must have looked on this lady, wearing such a pair!⁠

Decoding jewellery: Habiba’s amulet container

In another photo taken during the same session, Habiba is shown wearing an amulet container. You’ll find it above: click to enlarge it and see its details.

Lane describes this ornament as one of the things a wealthy lady would be wearing. He describes how these containers, called higab, were worn suspended from a silk string. The string would be worn over the left shoulder, so that the amulet container would hang to the right – exactly as Habiba is wearing it. [6]

The case itself, as he describes it, was made of embossed silver or gold. It’s difficult to see, but the amulet case in the image may indeed have been decorated with embossing. It features a series of dangles underneath: their jingling movement would help in keeping evil away.

Decoding jewellery: Habiba’s coin necklaces

But, there are also hints in these photos that although she may have been wealthy, she is not necessarily a woman of the elite. That is mostly visible from the way she wears her headscarf, and her other jewellery.

Habiba is shown wearing necklaces of coins. These are also visible on the photo shown together with the earrings above, which depicts an Egyptian fellaha or farmer around 1870.

And an even more striking parallel to Habiba’s jewellery is found in the photo of the woman above (click to enlarge it): the same earrings and coin necklaces. This is very much a posed photo: the smoking is a tell-tale sign. This photo was taken in the studios of Otto Schoefft. It is part of a series called Le Caire Pittoresque, and most of the photos in this series were taken in either the Cairo studio or the vicinity of Cairo. [7]      

Habiba: a woman from the Cairo region?

Based on the way she is dressed, ties her headscarf and selects her other jewellery, I’m inclined to think Habiba is from the region around Cairo. As you see in the photo above, which shows a dress from Bahariya oasis, her dress is different. [8] She does not wear any of the other characteristic jewellery from the oases: and as we have seen, her earrings may have been popular in a far wider region than they are now usually attributed to.

What is noteworthy however, is that she mostly keeps wearing the same jewellery in all photos known of her: the same earrings and necklaces. Only the amulet container is rarely seen.

That overall continuity means that she has not had to sell them – apparently her position as servant in Alexine’s household had her basic needs covered. But on the other hand, there is no increase in jewellery to be observed, so there would not be much to save, either.

In the end, Habiba survived the Tuareg attack that killed Alexine. She inherited a small amount of money, but where she decided to live out her life is not known. I wonder if there are still descendants of hers…!

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References

[1] M. Weissenberger 1998, Le bijou des oasis égyptiennes, in: Bliss, F. 1998. Artisanat et artisanat d’art dans les oasis du désert occidental égyptien, Studien zur Kulturkunde 109, p. 311. Also Azza Fahmy 2007, Enchanted Jewelry of Egypt, p. 91 for an image.

[2] A. Fakhry 2003 (1974). Bahariyah and Farafra, AUC Press, p. 42.

[3] M. Weissenberger 1998, Le bijou des oasis égyptiennes, in: Bliss, F. 1998. Artisanat et artisanat d’art dans les oasis du désert occidental égyptien, Studien zur Kulturkunde 109, p. 311.

[4] E. Lane 1842, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, vol 2, p. 404-405.

[5] Lane describes them with a ruby; a red stone would have had a similar effect.

[6] E. Lane 1842, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, vol 2, p. 411.

[7] F. Thürlemann 2016. Das Haremsfenster. Zur fotografischen erorbering Agyptens im 19. Jahrhundert, p. 49-83.

[8] See Shahira Mehrez 2023, Costumes of Egypt vol. I.

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S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

Village life in southern Sudan

Village life in southern Sudan

by | Cultures & People

Early photography

Village life in Southern Sudan: Alexine Tinne’s photos

Published Feb 21, 2024

In February 2024, Leiden University Libraries announced the acquisition of 18 previously unknown photographs by Dutch traveller Alexine Tinne. The photos date from 1862, and show life in Gondokoro, a village in Southern Sudan that no longer exists. And: they capture jewellery, hairstyle and dress!

Alexine Tinne: traveller and photographer

Alexine Tinne was a member of the Dutch elite in the 19th century. Her father had become rich through the exploitation of sugar plantations. When he died, she inherited a fortune, and decided to exchange her hometown of The Hague for a life of travel and photography.

Read more about her life and photographs in this article.

Photography in the 19th century was still a cumbersome activity. Instead of automatic presets, you actually had to know what you were doing in terms of exposure and lighting. That all had to be set manually, photo cameras were heavy and large, as were the tripods needed to keep them steady for the duration of the shot (no quick snaps in the 19th century!).

And instead of a film (anyone remember the day where you had to insert a filmroll in your camera instead of a memory card…?), early cameras worked with glass plates. Besides bringing your own equipment, you also needed the chemicals and tools to develop the images, and understand how that process worked.

So imagine going on a photo journey in the 19th century: loaded with glass plates, wooden tripods, heavy cameras, tins and buckets of chemicals and darkroom equipment. Alexine dragged all this and more to southern Sudan.

Southern Sudan: early photographs

Alexine set out to travel to the sources of the Nile. She left Cairo in 1861, with a series of river ships, a crew of enslaved staff, and her mother and aunt. The next year, she arrived in the village of Gondokoro: a destination that was known from her travel documentation, but of which no photographs survived. Until these photos were discovered!

These 18 photographs show scenes of village life. All of them are posed: taking a photograph was a time-consuming process, one of the reasons why early photography often shows buildings and landscapes rather than people.

The village itself consisted of both wooden buildings of poles and mudbrick covered walls, and structures of alternating rows of stone bricks and baked mudbrick. You see a glimpse of it in the photo above: click to enlarge it.

In a few photographs, details of adornment can be seen: let’s see what we can make of those!

Jewellery of southern Sudan: bracelets

The first photo above (click to enlarge it) shows two children engaged in hairdressing. The child on the left is picking something out of the child’s hair on the right. Both children wear beaded necklaces, and the child on the left also wears what looks like a single bracelet. But is it…?

The woman holding a basket on her head (in the gallery below, click to enlarge the photo) is wearing three of such bracelets on the arm planted in her side, and one on the arm holding the basket. I included a detail of that photo in the gallery above.

Looking at other photographs in which bracelets are worn, such as the other two children shown above, and more specifically at the shadows cast by the outer rim of the bracelets, I think we’re not looking at a single bracelet, but at a stack of bracelets of the type shown above. These are ivory bracelets from Congo (close to Gondokoro) and southern Sudan. Its name according to Griselda el Tayib is sin fil [1].

It is of course difficult to compare a 160-year old photo with bracelets existing today, but I believe this is the type of jewellery we’re looking at.

Dress and hairstyles of southern Sudan: the rahat skirt

The children in the photos are wearing the very familiar leather skirt known as rahat. An actual example is shown above. This skirt was worn by little girls [2] until they reached puberty: the collection also contains a photo of a young adult woman wearing such a skirt.

Such skirts also survive from archaeological excavations in Sudan and southern Egypt. I have seen fragments of leather skirts during my participation in the study season of the Ottoman leather of Qasr Ibrim, but they also date much further back to the medieval period. [3]

The difference in their hairstyles points to a difference in the stages of their life: the child with the braids sitting on the right is in a different social stage of life than the child with the little tufts on the left.

Adornment of southern Sudan: leather amulet container

The woman holding a basket on her head is also wearing a leather amulet container or higab, hanging from a long leather cord. These have a very long history, and are abundant in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.

The photo shows beads and a cowrie shell strung onto the leather cord. The upper part of the leather container seems to be decorated with a pattern of horizontal lines, much like the image of a comparable container on this blog.

Alexine Tinne’s early photos of southern Sudan: a historic source

These 18 photographs are incredibly important. They show us what the village of Gondokoro looked like, and what its inhabitants wore in terms of dress and adornment. I honestly could not be more excited about this new acquisition!

See the press release about the discovery of the photos here.

The photos have been acquired by Leiden University Libraries with financial support of Vereniging Rembrandt, a Dutch cultural organisation supporting the acquisition, research and restauration of art in the public domain.

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References

[1] G. el Tayib 2017, Regional Folk Costumes of Sudan, p. 138.

[2] G. el Tayib 2017, Regional Folk Costumes of Sudan, p. 100.

[3] See this blog by Women’s Literacy Sudan and this blog by Textile Research Centre, Leiden for more on the rahat skirt.

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S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

What is dowry jewellery?

What is dowry jewellery?

by | Cultures & People

Middle Eastern weddings

What is dowry jewellery?

Published Feb 09, 2024

Dowry jewellery is hugely important in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Why is that, and what is dowry jewellery?

Dowry jewellery in the Middle East and North Africa

The custom of giving jewellery to a woman on her marriage – the largest gift of jewellery she will ever receive on a single occasion – has a long history in the region.

The dowry gift is generally known as mahr, a term that varies in different languages and dialects. In Morocco for example is it known as sadaq, and in Nubia aba, but the Arabic mahr is understood everywhere.

Dowry jewellery in the Middle East: more than just jewels

The jewellery given to the bride carries far more meaning than your average sentimental wedding gift. This is because the dowry represents a woman’s personal assets, which she retains in the event of a divorce.

And that is tied directly to the value of the precious metal in the jewellery: long before the gold standard, banks and credit cards, wealth was derived from the precious metal content in coins and other valuable objects 0 like jewellery.

The particular gift of jewellery that forms part of the entire mahr is known as shabka in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, the Arab Peninsula and Jordan. Since the word shabka denotes jewellery, it has also become the general name for jewellery items that were traditionally given to a bride: a silver necklace, earrings, head ornaments and bracelets – or as much as the groom’s family could afford.

And that is also where the lines begin to get blurry, because there is no such thing as a ‘standard’ dowry.

What does a dowry jewellery set consist of?

So, what would be considered a decent dowry? The amount and value of the jewellery presented to brides varies from country to country; it even differs between regions and villages within particular countries. But it is equally important to brides throughout the region and is everywhere the subject of thorough negotiations between two families.

It’s easy to see how here, a conflict of interests may arise: the bride’s family desires her to be financially secure, while the groom’s family may have additional sons to marry, resulting in a greater financial obligation.

So, there is no standard or minimum value for a mahr, although sometimes the mahr of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, is used as a measure. The amount of silver dirhams her husband Ali gave her upon their wedding is sometimes converted into the value they would have today, and used as an indication for the size of a dowry.

But in general, much depends on the outcome of the negotiations between the two families and the financial means of the groom and his family.

Providing the dowry jewellery

Having agreed upon a dowry is one thing, but actually providing it is another. The promptness of the dowry presentation differed throughout the region. Frequently, the presentation was divided between the engagement and the actual marriage.

This division can be according to local tradition. In some communities the groom is expected to present his bride to be with jewellery on every milestone event towards their wedding.

But providing the dowry in terms instead of all at once could also be for very practical reasons. Often, the amount of jewellery agreed upon could simply not be acquired because the groom and his family lacked the means to purchase it all.

And so, this would result in more of a commitment than in actual jewellery. In fact, in many instances, the mahr was never fully paid.

In such situations, the marriage contract would include a provision stating that the outstanding amount must be paid in the event of a divorce or the husband’s death. Essentially, this meant that the husband and his family would be in debt to his wife: she would always be entitled to her dowry jewellery.

Interestingly, the failure to fulfill the agreed-upon payment had a silver lining, as it served as a deterrent to future attempts by the husband to take on a second wife. If he could not afford the dowry jewellery of his first wife, how would he be able to offer a decent dowry to anyone else?

Showing the dowry jewellery

Although the size of the dowry varied, it was as a rule always shown publicly during the wedding festivities. A bride would be wearing all her new jewellery, which sometimes resulted in her carrying several kilos of silver. An example is the Yemeni bride shown above (click the image to enlarge it) – she is wearing so much jewellery that she can hardly move.

In other cases, the jewellery was displayed on its own, so everyone could inspect the pieces.

This practice of showing the jewellery served multiple purposes. Clearly, showcasing the successful agreement was a major reason. Showing off the jewellery literally communicates how both families has reached a good deal.

But it also served a practical objective. Displaying the jewellery at the wedding ensured that everyone in the community had witnessed the assets involved. This had a strategic aspect: if there was a need to sell some of the jewellery in the future to address household emergencies, the husband would be indebted to his wife for that portion of her personal capital.

And as everyone in the community had seen the jewellery with their own eyes, there would be no mistakes in keeping track of who was indebted to whom!

In some communities, the dowry jewellery would be marked with a red dot: this would not only keep evil away and add to the festivities, but would also clearly mark the jewellery as dowry jewellery: the unalienable assets of the woman.

After her wedding, the bride would continue to wear her wealth visibly. That includes the use of coins and other silver on dress, veils and headdresses, like the two examples in the gallery above.

Wedding jewellery: relatives and guests

In addition to the jewellery given by the groom, relatives and other wedding guests are often expected to present the bride with items of jewellery as well. These are often smaller than the groom’s gift, but contribute to the bride’s financial independence nonetheless. In the region around Hebron, the bride traditionally wore a miqlab, a piece of cloth that was decorated on the eve of her wedding by her aunts. On it, various silver pendants, amulets, coins and beads were sewn, all of which would later form part of her jewellery. [2]

Middle Eastern dowry jewellery: a complex world

The importance of jewellery as wedding gift is still hard to overestimate. If you have been invited to a wedding, you may have experienced that presenting the bride with jewellery is customary.

There is a world of clever uses of jewellery as a financial asset, inside views on dowry negotiations and its lasting effect in today’s world in the e-course on Dowry & Status: have a look and discover this aspect of Middle Eastern jewellery!

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References

[1] For an overview of the dowry in Palestine during several decennia, see Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London, p. 230 – 240.

[2] Shelagh Weir relates that the miqlab was worn on the back of the bride during the first wedding-day procession, and on their chests for the final ‘going out’-procession. See Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London, p. 184.

 

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

Ancient jewellery: Lebanon

Ancient jewellery: Lebanon

by | Cultures & People

Jewellery history of the Levant

Ancient jewellery from Lebanon

Published Dec 27, 2023

What is the history of traditional jewellery in North Africa and the Middle East? Historical context and cultural heritage have left their traces in the traditional jewellery worn in countries as we know them today, and so this blog series takes us back to the distant past. In this blog, I will look at jewellery history in Lebanon in very broad strokes: what is the history of Lebanese jewellery?

Lebanon: early jewellery history

The geographical area which is now Lebanon is, historically, part of the larger Syro-Palestinian cultural sphere. That is reflected in its ancient jewellery: it shows continuity and connections. One of the earliest occurrences of adornment and the production of adornment in Western Asia is found in Lebanon.

A few kilometers from Beirut lies Ksar ‘Akil, a rock shelter where people lived some 40,000 years ago. These people created beads of shell, and not just any shells: they were very particular about their choices. They liked to mix very white and colourful shells. And it doesn’t end there: they selected shells specifically to create ornaments. So, it’s not creativity with left-over shells from food production, as you might think, but a very selective process to gather exactly those shells they wanted. [1]

These Lebanese shell beads are among the oldest ornaments in the world, and are instrumental in understanding the development of cognitive capacities of humans: it is by decorating ourselves that we show awareness of how others see us.

Lebanon in the Bronze Age: beads of history

It is beads again that tell us about long distance trade in the early Bronze Age, around 3000 – 2500 BCE. In Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, in the north of Lebanon, a small urban center flourished. Here, inscribed cylindrical beads were found. These are seals, that were used to sign administrative documents: rolling the bead over wet clay would leave the impression of the image on the seal. They tell us a lot about organization and administration. A gold ring with a lapis lazuli cylinder seal, shown above, was possibly found in the city of Byblos: I am showing it to you next to a cylinder seal, possibly from Iraq, to give you an idea of such a bead.

The materials used to make beads are as informative about long distance trade. Seven unassuming steatite beads reveal a trade network that reached as far as the Indus Valley. On the site, no evidence for bead production was found, making it likely that these beads were traded. And here again, their colours seems to have been significant: it’s the type of steatite that turns white when burned that seems to have been preferred. [2]

Bronze beads from Lebanon

In the Middle Bronze Age, cast bronze beads have been found on various sites in Lebanon. Here again, we see how Lebanon formed part of a wider world in the Levant: the Lebanese beads have been created using the same metallurgical practices such as alloy composition and techniques used as elsewhere in Southwest Asia.

What metallurgical analyses of the Lebanese beads also reveal is the practice of reuse: lead has been added to the mix in some ornaments. Did the people who made these beads have difficulty accessing tin and copper, or could they simply not afford it? [3]

Byblos: a Mediterranean trade hub

The city of Byblos was a major trading port on the Mediterranean and received ships from all over the sea, as well as trade routes that came from further inland. An example is the trading ship that sank off the coast of Turkey: among its cargo were thousands of beads and gold jewellery that came from the southern Levant. This ship would also have traded in the port of Byblos.

In the city of Byblos, a gold disc was found which shows us an example of cultural exchange around 4,000 years ago. The workmanship is Mesopotamian in technique, but not in execution. It is the disc shown in the gallery above: click to enlarge the photos.

Perhaps this is the work of a local craftsman, who learned to work with granulation in the style of current-day Iraq. The disc is unique and no other parallels for the use of granulation in a similar item exist. While Byblos has revealed quite a lot of Egyptian or Egyptianizing jewellery, this piece is neither.

Byblos: Egyptian influences

How did Egyptian jewellery end up in Byblos? That is because the region that is now Lebanon was located within the Egyptian sphere of influence for much of the Bronze and early Iron Age. The Egyptian court would send gifts to other kings, and as the collection in the National Museum in Beirut shows, these were of very high quality. The kings of Byblos were considered important partners.

Jewellery in the Egyptian style became very popular. It was also preferred by the non-elite, as the spread of relatively low-quality scarabs made of amethyst shows: these have been found throughout the southern Levant. [4]

In the gallery above (click to enlarge the photos), you will see a few examples of this cultural exhange: amethyst scarabs in gold rings and bracelets, and the continuation of the ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus-symbol in jewellery from Lebanon.

From Lebanon across the Mediterranean: Phoenician jewellery

Trade in the Mediterranean world was dominated by the Phoenicians during the first millennium. They operated from Lebanon. From their main ports in Beirut, Byblos, Sidon and Tyre they established colonies throughout North Africa and Europe. Carthage, in current-day Tunisia, is one of their most famous cities which would become an empire of itself.

Because of the origins of the Phoenicians in current-day Lebanon, Phoenician jewellery is heavily influenced by that of ancient Egypt, too: you will find lots of scarabs and other Egyptian motifs in Phoenician jewellery. These are combined with other cultural influences, like that of the Aegean world.

Very specific for Phoenician jewellery are the famous face-beads: these have been found widely throughout the Mediterranean, for example also on Sardinia. A few examples are in the image above: Phoenician jewellery requires its own article, which I will add soon!

Roman jewellery in Lebanon

When Lebanon was part of the Roman Empire, here, too, Roman jewellery became popular. Funerary stelae show images of men and women dressed in Roman fashion, and excavations of Roman cemeteries brought Roman jewellery to light. [5]

And that was not just for ordinary people: the gods, too, were believed to be adorned with jewellery. The arm of a statue found in Beirut was shown with no less than thirteen (!) bracelets on its upper arm. This was a statue of the god Jupiter Heliopolitanus, who, as supreme deity, needed opulent jewellery to reflect his status. The impression shown above shows the splendour with which divinities were imagined. [6]

Ancient jewellery of Lebanon: a cultural treasure

The wide variety in ancient jewellery from Lebanon testifies to millennia of cultural exhange, innovation and trade. If you’d like to see more of this in person, I highly recommend a visit to the National Museum in Beirut: there is much more to admire than one blog article can accommodate!

This blog will continue with the traditional jewellery of Lebanon.

This is an updated, adapted and expanded version of a blog I wrote earlier for the Zay Initiative.

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More historical background on jewellery from the Middle East and North Africa? Check out the course on Ancient Jewellery!

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References

[1] Kuhn, S. et al. 2001. Ornaments of the earliest Upper Paleolithic: New insights from the Levant, in: PNAS 2001, vol 98 (13), pp. 7641-7646.

[2] Damick, A. & M. Woodworth 2015. Steatite beads from Tell Fadous-Kfarabida: A case study in early Bronze Age technology in Northern Coastal Lebanon, in: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 3, pp. 603-614.

[3] Morr, Z. el & M. Mödlinger 2014. Middle Bronze Age Metal Artefacts and Metallurgical Practices at the Sites of Tell Arqa, Mougharet el-Hourriyeh, Yanouh and Kharihi in Lebanon, in: Levant 46:1 pp 27-42.

[4] David, A. 2019. Uninscribed Amethyst Scarabs from the Southern Levant, in: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 381, pp. 57-81.

[5] Jong, L. de 2010. Performing Death in Tyre: the Life and Afterlife of a Roman Cemetery in the Province of Syria, in: American Journal of Archaeology Vol 114 no. 4, pp. 597-630.

[6] B. Fowlkes-Childe & M. Seymour, 2019, The World Between Empires. Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 126. I would like to thank Tania Zaven of the DGA for providing me with this reference and showing me this fragment in the National Museum of Beirut.

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.