Here is another Shahsavan myth. The so-called Talish rosette believed to be created by the Shahsavan.
What is the Talish rosette? Basically it’s two interlocking eternity symbols that form a cross in its negative space.
This rosette can be traced back to the pagan Ancient Romans and was then used extensively in ancient Anatolia by the Byzantines and the Armenians who modified it to accommodate a lobbed cross within it.
The Armenians then started putting it on everything from Medieval manuscripts and Khachkars to Caucasian and Anatolian rugs.
So the design evolution was west to east and its origin has nothing to do with the Talish, the Shahsavan nor Central Asia.
Rosette computer illustration courtesy of Alex Damla Rug Design Services.
On a rocky promontory above the southwestern shore of Lake Sevan, at an elevation of…
Among the most arresting objects to survive from the Early Iron Age Near East are…
How a promise made to genocide survivors was traded away for peace with Ankara —…
A Fragment That Traveled Across Continents The gilt-silver medallion shown above — two richly dressed…
Few episodes in ancient Armenian history capture the imagination quite like the tradition that Hannibal…
Five angles of one small bronze figure — and what emerges is not an abstract…