Following are two images (overall and detail) of a Kaitag embroidery that will likely be exhibited here in Washington during the ICOC in April of 2003. The piece is, I believe, previously unpublished.

Note that the palmettes are of the "open" variety, in which the field color extends into the body of the palmette, much as in the case of the Italian palmette. We also see, in yellow at the base of each palmette, a crescent shape that may be a version of the bar on the Lenkorans or the bands from the dragon carpets. It at least vaguely resembles the serrated pendant on the Italian palmette.

Wendel

I don't want to misdirect this thread, but am I the only one who can visualize the palmette as an inverted uterus? (...or a tulip, for that matter?) Crude drawings of the female internal genitailia depict the uterus in this open-ended, pear-shaped fashion.

Speculation: Is the reproductive issue discussed in the "A Few Good Men" thread apropos here as well?

-Jerry-

The reproductive issue is relevant anyplace anybody sees a connection.

Yes, the open palmette looks like sketched section through a uterus. Also like a Jack-in-the Box, a zit in mid-pop, a shopping bag full of celery, or any of thousands of other things. I think the most prudent interpretation of those on the Kaitag is that they are derived from classical open palmettes. The embroidery in Wendel's post looks like on of those that are modified in the distinctive Kaitag style from formal court textiles.

Regards,

Steve Price

I don't know of any historical reference to this, but there was a book a few years back by Douglas, called The Hidden Language (at least, that's my recollection of a first approximation to the title).

The basic thesis of the book was that rugs are primarily an expression of an ancient set of rules about reproductive behavior. I don't remember many details, but I do recall an illustration showing a prayer rug of the Beshir type. The mihrab was read as an erect penis, the "ram's horns" in which the mihrab typically terminates in those rugs, as ejaculation.

Now, I've got as dirty a mind as any other dirty old man, but I really think the floral elements on rugs are flowers, and, for the most part, the people who first adopted these motifs did so because they thought flowers were beautiful and flowers go through an annual reincarnation of sorts.

Steve Price

You wrote in part:

"...I really think the floral elements on rugs are flowers..."

This is not an argument but rather a tautology and unworthy of a truly dirty old man. Or of a biologist.

Regards,

R. John Howe

John's right, that wasn't an argument. Nor was it intended to be. The wording was careless - I should have said that I believe the things we generally intepret as floral elements (rosettes and palmettes) really are floral elements. That isn't an argument either, just an expression of an opinion.

Vis-a-vis my recollection of a book by Douglas, alluded to in my earlier post, I've run down some information on it. Here's an image from HALI #58, p. 71.

The caption to it says, According to Dr. John Douglass, these drawings show a "Melas prayer rug (19th century) depicting an ejaculating penis compared to an anatomical sketch of an erect penis." Reproduced from Douglass & Peters, The Lost Language (1990), vol. 1, p. 35.

What more is there to say?

Steve Price

Filiberto

The truth, if I may be so bold as to elucidate it here in the privacy of this board, is that the mihrab is nothing more than a rocket ship on the launch pad , with an atomic engine in the middle of it and radio waves emanating from the top. This iconography predates the space age, meaning that we have been visited by creatures from outer space, including "The Pods" of the Kaitags. They brought Simurghs, dragons and some sort of magical cloudband fungus.
All that is left today is the fungus .

Helpfully,

Patrick Weiler