Saddlebags, Sacks, Stacks

When winter is over and the season turns towards spring, the nomadic villages set up around Anatolia start to grow restless. There is a flurry of action to move back up to the plateaux, for there will be tons of work to do before the day of migration determined by the nomad chief arrives. Sacred locations are visited prior to the migration to pray for fertility and prosperity, and goodbyes are said to those who are to stay behind or go someplace else. The black tents to be used up there in the plateaux are repaired; kilims, felt mats, carpets, cushions, pillows, clothes, dishes to make milk, cheese and butter, and the sheet irons to bake bread are all packed up. Lambs get weaned and introduced to feed from the meadow, and animals are given their vaccinations. The camels are decked out for the march to be cheerful and fertile, jingling bells hanging down their bodies and necks. They get loaded with all the luggage to be carried along, covered with kilims and bound up. Women sew clothes out of wool and fabrics they have woven with their own hands.  

When the day to start out finally arrives, brides don their new clothes, and girls attach golden coins on their heads. The nomad chief appoints a girl of marrying age for each train of seven camels. The heading “maya” camel of the train is decked out with kilims, carpets, and woollen knittings. During the migration

men lead the sheep while young women and children lead the lambs and kids. Food is packed into sacks woven on hand looms called “istars”, and bales of them are prepared. They do not like carrying too much luggage as they move around several times during the year. The packing is made by the eldest women and grannies of the tribe according to ancient traditions. Nothing can be put into the sacks without their permission. When the march starts, the head-of-trains takes in hand the reins of the decked-out animal and leads the walk. During the 10-20 days of migration, the shepherds take the livestock ahead in advance. Members of the tribe follow them with sacks, saddlebags, and packed-up loads. They are not left devoid of entertainment during the march, either. Wrestling matches are held among teenagers, meals are eaten collectively. At the beginning of June, they settle down on the primary plateau. Floor coverings are spread inside the black tents that are erected, the sacks are lined up and covered with ‘tülü’ spreads and kilims, and then settled life ensues at least for a while. The wool of the animals that pass the summer in the scents and coolness of the mountains is sheared after the return from the plateau, and some of it is sold away. The rest of the wool will be spinned and dyed in winter, and then woven into kilims, saddlebags, and sacks.

Saddlebags...

Weaving is a basic occupation not only with the nomads, but in every town and village of Anatolia. Every woman sits before her loom called “istar” in her spare time and weaves  everything necessary for her nomadic family, from shirts to sacks, with her own hands. She decorates the saddlebags with colorful patterns. Her loving longings, pains, joys have found their way into songs and elegies, and sometimes they have been woven into her hand-made socks, fabrics, carpets and kilims. Saddlebags, sacks, and cushion casings created with weavings of kilim, cicim, zili, sumak, and pala have a major place in their lives.

In cicim weavings, the base is formed upon tightly stretched warp yarns. Upon this background, orange, yellow, green, blue, red threads reflect either some longing, or a joy in life... just the way it happens in sumak and zili weavings. In zili type of weavings, the colorful yarns are wrapped around appointed spots on the base, forming motifs that are also visible on the backside.

Shepherds bring up the rear following their flocks, carrying on their shoulders the saddlebags woven by their beloved ones. The motif of ram’s horn upon them adds to the men’s powerfulness while the dragon motif summons abundant fertility. Those on their way to go working in the fields also carry their belongings inside saddlebags they hang down their shoulders, or inside double bags with neck slots to pass heads through so that they hang over the chests and shoulder blades. Sometimes the saddlebag is thrown over a horse or a donkey to carry provisions. The value of the saddlebags rise according to the material and weaving technique used. The saddlebags taken to the field or those placed on the backs of donkeys are woven out of cotton yarns or goat’s hair. Nomadic women who want their saddlebags to look good weave them with the technique of zili. Then they add colored yarns of goat’s hair into the fabric, and adorn the bag with stitched seashells and beads against the evil-eye.

Saddlebags find other uses than mounting the shoulders of shepherds and field-workers, too. All valuable artifacts sent from the groom’s house to the bride’s house are put into the saddlebags placed over horsebacks. The saddlebags carrying dowries are called “patterned saddlebags” while those used for taking henna to the bride’s house prior to the wedding are called “hennaman’s saddlebags”. A girl’s dowry must include at least a dozen saddlebags. A bride without motley sacks, horsecloths, and saddlebags is just inconceivable.

Sacks, stacks...

The sacks used to store and transport wheat, barley, rhye, and flour take different names according to their functions and weaving techniques. Sacks woven of animal hair both on warp and weft are good for transporting cooking utensils as well as grain storages. Goat’s hair is used in order to keep moisture out of these sacks inside which fodder is also carried on occasion. Flour sacks, on the other hand, are woven out of woollen warps and wefts.

The sacks filled up with clothes and provisions and stored away in a corner of the tent or plateau house are called stacking sacks. These are also used as items of decoration. That is the reason why they are woven out of wool in various colors and techniques like cicim, zili, and sumak. They are stacked inside the tent with their patterned surfaces on display. These are also called motley sacks, and people sitting on the kilims and carpets on the floor lean their backs against them. Girls’ dowries must by far constitute the most attractive loads packed into motley sacks. Settled or semi-settled, many traditions are kept alive in nomadic villages. Young females load camels with their dowries packed in motley sacks and cover them with kilims called motley horsecloths during transport. If you visit some houses in Anatolia, you can see packs stacked away next to the walls and covered with kilims. Under these kilims lie mattresses and blankets laced with stark-white frills and glistening embroideries. If there is a closet for bedding in the house, then these blankets will be packed into stacking sacks and placed into this closet.

While the faces of these sacks are woven in various colors and patterns, their backings are woven in the form of plain horizontal and vertical lines. This is also how you figure out whether a sack is from the east or west. If the visible lines on a sack standing upright are horizontal, then the sack is of western origin. Vertical lines point out that the sack was woven in eastern Anatolia, in some region farther into the east from Konya. A few instances of horizontal lined sacks can also be found in Malatya, an indication of hybridization between cultures and, consequently, between weavings. The sacks with wefts of goat’s hair are generally from the region of Maras. 

Most of the nomads everywhere around Anatolia used to migrate several times a year and had lived in tents for many years, but they gradually settled down in time, and many artifacts that they

required and wove in the old times thus became items of decoration. But there are still many saddlebags, sacks, stacks, floor coverings, prayer rugs, cushion casings, and sofa covers resisting the destructive power of time upon the fertile lands of Anatolia... And they are holding fast with all their might on the roots of that land to stand tall against oblivion.