Turquoise in Culture & History
Turquoise was worked in the Southwest long before silver came into it: worked turquoise dated to at least A.D. 300 came out of Snaketown, a Hohokam site on the Gila River, and Navajo smiths first set the stone in silver around 1880. [12][9] On the far side of the world it had a second history: in Tibetan rosaries, on the thrones of Persian epic, in the marble of the Taj Mahal. [8][11] This page gathers the published record of both, most of it written by outsiders, every line tied to a book and a page.
KEY POINTS
- The earliest date on this page is at least A.D. 300, for worked turquoise from Snaketown, dug in the 1930s. Around A.D. 1300 the Hohokam began gluing turquoise chips onto wood, bone and shell, a method Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo peoples took up later. [12]
- Pueblo Bonito, the largest Great House in Chaco Canyon, had yielded more than 65,000 turquoise artifacts as of 2021. On Fajada Butte, a team in the 1990s concluded, a workshop worked the stone in bulk around A.D. 950–1050. [3][12]
- Silver is the newcomer. Silverworking came in with the Spanish (Hammack 1975); the styles later called “Indian Jewelry” began in the mid-nineteenth century (Lowry 2010); Navajo smiths set turquoise in silver from about 1880 (Bassman 1997). [13][1][9]
- Outside writers recorded turquoise as the early Navajo smiths’ favorite stone, a symbol of the sky with religious significance, and a guard against harm. These are their records. The nations are the authority on their own beliefs. [16][5]
- Elsewhere it meant other things. In Tibetan religious service it was strung into rosaries of 108 beads; in Persian its name, firuza, shares a root with piruzi, “victory”; Moctezuma gave it to Cortés, whose Spaniards wanted silver and gold instead. [8][11][3]
These are the records of historians, travelers and collectors, most of them outsiders writing a century or more ago. The nations themselves are the authority on their own beliefs and traditions.
To learn from the nations directly: the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (owned by the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico), the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation.
For a shorter tour of the stone through the ages, read The Timelessness of Turquoise in our journal.
The Pueblo and Southwest world
Lowry (2010) describes the first Native work in turquoise as stones drilled and strung into necklaces, and small pieces laid into mosaic on wood, shell or bone. [1] The dates come out of the ground. Excavations at Snaketown in the 1930s, led by Emil Haury and Harold Gladwin, turned up worked turquoise going back to A.D. 300 at the latest, possibly earlier. [12] Around 1300 the Hohokam of southern Arizona began making finer mosaic, chip by chip, for jewelry and ceremonial objects. [12]
Chaco Canyon is where the numbers get large. Pueblo Bonito, the biggest of its Great Houses, had yielded more than 65,000 turquoise artifacts as of 2021. [3] On Fajada Butte, a team working in the 1990s found what it read as a major workshop, active from about A.D. 950 to 1050 and possibly producing for trade. [12] Trade ran both ways: Tryk (1993) describes Southwest turquoise going out in exchange for shell from peoples of the Pacific coast and the Gulf of California. [16]
Nancy Hammack (1975) quotes the Spanish explorers who came into Arizona, among them Fray Marcos de Niza, who wrote in 1539 of people with three or four strings of green stones at the neck and turquoise in their ears and noses. [13] Her larger point: apart from silver, whose working the Spanish introduced, most of the materials in the jewelry of her day were already in prehistoric work. [13]
One necklace shows how slippery the labels are. Branson (1975) notes that the strand called the traditional Navajo necklace is Pueblo in origin. Pueblo people made and wore it first, the Navajo seldom made it, and as of 1975 it had long been, with jaclas, the most important piece in trade with the Rio Grande Pueblos. [2]
Turquoise in Southwestern belief, as outsiders recorded it
What follows is reported, not taught. These are outsiders’ accounts set down in books, and the nations named in them are the authority on what they mean.
Bedinger (1973) wrote that among the stones the early Navajo smiths set, few settings other than turquoise survive, because turquoise pushed the rest out once it could be had, and that turquoise alone possessed magic and religious meaning. [5] At Zuni, she wrote, the stone holds a paramount place in religion and mythology. [5] The Diné, in her account, revered its beauty and believed firmly in its magic, and still put silver first in their jewelry. [5] Writing of the early Navajo smiths, Tryk (1993) calls turquoise their favorite stone, a symbol of the sky with religious significance, and records beliefs that it protected the wearer, kept them healthy and turned evil away. [16]
Khazeni (2014), writing from the Persian side of the stone’s history, thought it likely that the Navajo took both turquoise and the beliefs around it from the Zuni and other Pueblos, whose trade networks carried the stone. [11]
Crosses, crescents and suns
The double-barred cross is the clearest case of one form read two ways. Bedinger (1973) saw in it the dragonfly the Pueblos had long painted on pottery, sacred because it stood for water, and noted that many pueblos, Zuni and Acoma notably among them, called the cross a dragonfly. [5] Adair (1944) recorded six answers on it: four said Dragon-Fly, two said the Christian cross. [14] Frank (1990) set a cross of about 1870 beside the dragonfly on a Zuni jar of about 1900 for comparison, and also shows a Pueblo cross of about 1915 that ends in a Catholic sacred heart. [6]
Washington Matthews, as Bedinger reports him, wrote that he understood the Navajo cross as a morning-star symbol rather than the Christian sign, though he believed its long lower arm was borrowed from the Christian form. [5] Charles Lummis acquired what he called an ancient Zuni wristlet, engraved with the sacred full-rayed sun, and was never able to duplicate it. [5] From 1903 to 1907 a short-lived movement among the White Mountain and Cibecue Apache wore a silver cross under a crescent moon on the shirt front. [5]
The crescent is murkier. On its meaning Bedinger found “little authentic information” and nothing very satisfactory. [5] For the naja itself, read Ungelbah Dávila-Shivers’s The Naja.
Silver, and when turquoise went into it
Before metal, Peshlakai Atsidi recalled in 1937, Navajo bracelets were deer horn, boiled until it would bend. The horn was drilled with a bone awl, and turquoise was fixed in it with piñon gum. [15]
Silver came with the Spanish, and with it a language of office. Bedinger (1973) records the king of Spain sending each Pueblo officer a silver-headed cane so that his authority would be known, and Abraham Lincoln giving the governors canes many decades later. [5] At Isleta, Pablo Abeita told Adair that couples married in the Catholic church were given a rosary bead, a sign of obedience to the marriage and the faith. Later the beads were silver or coral with silver crosses between them, husband and wife exchanged them, and by his day almost everyone wore them, married or not. [5]
Turquoise went into Navajo silver about 1880, by Bassman’s dating, and by 1890 smiths were using it in abundance. [9] By the 1920s and 1930s it was used extensively, in very large, heavy stones, which raised what a piece would bring at pawn. [9] By the 1940s, Bahti (2007) writes, each nation had its own lane. Traders at Zuni wanted a style no other tribe was making, and Zuni smiths were concentrating on lapidary work in shell and stone. Plain silver, and silver with a few turquoise settings, was generally left to Navajo smiths. The Museum of Northern Arizona helped develop a Hopi style, and Hopi smiths were starting on overlay drawn from Hopi textile and pottery design. [7]
Southwest silverwork in the makers’ words
Bahti (2007) built his book with the artists. Each one reviewed and corrected his notes and both drafts, so every word carried the artist’s approval. [7] He records the Zuni smith who learned from Atsidi Chon agreeing in 1898 to teach his Hopi host, Sikyatala; the two men came from different Pueblo groups and shared the Mustard Clan. [7] And he records Loren Panteah, Zuni: “We started thinking of protecting our own designs.” That thinking led to a tribal certification ordinance and, in January 2006, commissioners to carry it out. [7]
Mexico and the Andes
Moctezuma gave Cortés turquoise, mosaic pieces among it. The gifts meant little to the Europeans; the Spaniards wanted silver and gold. Several such pieces are now in the British Museum. [3] Kunz (1890) lists two turquoise-inlaid human skulls in London’s Christy Collection. [4] In Peru the Royal Tombs of Sipán were found intact, with gold, silver and turquoise among the grave goods: metal masks, a royal scepter, turquoise-inlaid ear spools. [1] The museum-held Mexican pieces have their own article, Turquoise Mosaics of Ancient Mexico.
Tibet, China and the oldest Old World finds
Laufer’s 1913 study is the deep source here. He recorded turquoise rosaries in religious service, 108 beads the usual count; Buddhist images set with turquoise, which mark them as Lamaist, since the Chinese, he wrote, never used the method; and the first Panchen Lama’s gold sarcophagus at Tashilhunpo, studded with the stone. [8] In China, he dates the stone’s official adoption for the imperial cult to the reign of the Qianlong emperor, and records that the emperor wore a turquoise rosary when he officiated at the Temple of the Moon. [8] Branson (1975) adds that Tibetans regarded turquoise “as a thing in itself and not as a stone.” [2] Our article Turquoise in Tibet, Mongolia and China goes further.
The Old World record runs older still. Sumerian tombs at Ur dating back to 2500 BC held fine objects, many of them inlaid with turquoise beside gold, silver, lapis lazuli and carnelian. [1] China is the odd gap: Laufer knew of lapis, carnelian and agate from Chinese graves, but as far as he and Chinese experts knew in 1913, turquoise had not yet turned up in any Chinese grave. [8]
Persia and the Islamic world
In Persian the stone is firuza. Khazeni (2014) traces it to the same root as piruzi, victory, most likely through its ties to empire and an old belief that a rider who carried turquoise could not be thrown or beaten. [11] Across the Islamic empires, he writes, its widest meanings were imperial victory and power, and a celestial blue. [11]
It moved as diplomacy. In 1513 Shah Ismaʿil I, the first Safavid shah, gave turquoise to Ismaʿil Adil Shah of Goa; a year later he sent more to Albuquerque, the Portuguese admiral. After Chaldiran in 1514 the Ottomans carried turquoise-jewelled objects from his Tabriz treasury to Topkapi. [11] In the Mughal painting Jahangir’s Dream (1618) the emperor wears a sky-blue turquoise ring. [11]
It went onto buildings. Tile makers in Samarqand, Herat, Tabriz and Isfahan glazed mosque domes, minarets and portals in turquoise blue, one of the haft rang’s seven celestial shades. [11] Evliya Çelebi described a Nishapur turquoise the size of a bowl above the qibla gate of Sinan’s Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Taj Mahal, finished in 1653, is inlaid with turquoise from Iran and Tibet. [11] Khazeni’s best line is about the color: the hue was so singular in nature that the stone became the name of its shade. [11]
Europe changed the price. In markets that measured worth in gold and silver, Khazeni writes, turquoise lost the meaning it had held in the Islamic empires and fell from precious to semiprecious. [11] Shylock’s grief runs the other way. His daughter traded his turquoise for a monkey, a stone he had from Leah, and “I would not have given it for a wilderness of Monkies.” [11] For the mines, see Persian Turquoise: The Nishapur Mines; for the stone’s road west, Tracing the Turquoise Road and The Written History of Turquoise.
In their own words
Where the artists we work with have spoken about turquoise in their own traditions, their words belong here first, with the books as supporting reference. This section grows as we record those conversations. Meet them in our silversmith directory.
Field Notes by Mateo James
The books give the double-barred cross two readings, and I keep both. Adair’s six answers split four to two, dragonfly over Christian cross; Frank sets a cross beside a Zuni jar’s dragonfly, and shows a Catholic sacred heart on a Pueblo cross of about 1915. Bedinger thought the heart at the base of many crosses might mix the two. [14][6][5]
The same stone was a mark of empire in the Islamic world and a semiprecious stone in the markets of Europe. Khazeni (2014) shows turquoise carrying victory and power across the Islamic empires, then losing that meaning in European markets that counted worth in gold and silver, where it fell from precious to semiprecious. [11]
From the Library
What 16 reference books say about turquoise in culture and history, grouped by topic. Every passage names its book and page; full references are under Sources.
These are mostly outside observers’ records. The Pueblo nations, the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation and the other peoples named here are the authority on their own beliefs and work.
Ancient turquoise work and trade in the Southwest10 passages · 6 books
The earliest dated work, Chaco’s workshops, and the trade in turquoise and shell.
Lowry (2010) on the earliest Southwest work:
“The initial art of the Native Americans was to drill and string turquoise into necklaces or to use small pieces of turquoise in mosaic designs set on wood, shell, or bone.”
Lowry (2010), p. 78 AS OF 2010 [1]
Lowry (2010) dated the silver styles:
“It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that silver began to be developed into the styles that would become known as "Indian Jewelry."”
Lowry (2010), p. 78 AS OF 2010 [1]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 28), excavations showed Pueblo Bonito to be the largest Great House in Chaco Canyon and a major cultural and economic center, and more than 65,000 turquoise artifacts had been recovered there as of 2021. [3]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 10), worked turquoise dated to about A.D. 300 was found in the 1930s excavations of Snaketown, a major Hohokam site on the Gila River south of Phoenix, led by Emil Haury and Harold Gladwin. [12]
Lowry (2002) on the 1990s finds at Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon:
“The team concluded that a major workshop had operated there between approximately A.D. 950 and 1050, processing turquoise objects on a large scale, perhaps for trade.”
Lowry (2002), p. 13 AS OF 2002 [12]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 13), around A.D. 1300 the Hohokam of southern Arizona began making more refined mosaic jewelry and ceremonial objects by gluing turquoise chips to wood, bone and shell, techniques the Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo peoples later adopted. [12]
Tryk (1993), summarizing the prehistoric trade:
“Turquoise, for example, was mined in the Southwest and could be exchanged for shells from tribes that lived on the Pacific coast or near the Gulf of California.”
Tryk (1993), p. 51 AS OF 1993 [16]
Nancy Hammack, in the 1975 Turquoise Blue Book, quoted the earliest Spanish report from what is now Arizona:
“Fray Marcos de Niza, in 1539, wrote of "the number of turquoises worn as ornaments by the people. Some had as many as three or four strings of green stones around their neck; others carried them as ear-pendants and in their noses."”
Stacey (1975), p. 4 AS OF 1975 [13]
On what changed and what did not, Hammack wrote in 1975:
“Excepting silver, the working of which was introduced by the Spanish, most materials utilized currently were also incorporated into prehistoric jewelry.”
Stacey (1975), p. 4 AS OF 1975 [13]
Branson (1975) opened his pages on mosaic work with:
“Turquoise mosaics are probably some of the most fascinating examples of jewelry, prehistoric or modern.”
Branson (1975), p. 18 AS OF 1975 [2]
Pueblo necklaces, mosaics and carvings9 passages · 1 book
The necklace the Pueblos made first, and Pueblo mosaic and carving in Branson’s 1975 illustrations.
Branson (1975) began with who made the form:
“This type necklace has been called the traditional Navajo necklace although it was made and worn first by the Pueblo Indians.”
Branson (1975), p. 58 AS OF 1975 [2]
On its long history among the Navajo, Branson (1975) wrote:
“The traditional necklace has been very popular with the Navajo for a long time. It is shown being worn by both men and women in the earliest pictures taken of Indians in the Southwest.”
Branson (1975), p. 58 AS OF 1975 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 58), the Navajo seldom made this type of necklace themselves; as of 1975 it had long been the most important trade item, together with jaclas, of the Pueblo peoples of the Rio Grande Valley. [2]
Branson (1975) also recorded a trade name for one variant:
“Sometimes called "tab" necklaces because of the tabular shape of the turquoise pieces”
Branson (1975), p. 58 AS OF 1975 [2]
Branson (1975, p. 19) illustrated Santo Domingo (Kewa Pueblo) turquoise fragment earrings overlaid on both sides over a wooden core, alongside a Santo Domingo mosaic pendant overlaid on red abalone shell. [2]
Branson (1975, p. 19) also showed a Zuni inlay on pearl shell whose turquoise, jet and coral design he likened to the eagle motif usually seen on pottery. [2]
Branson (1975) captioned a multi-strand necklace:
“A turquoise fetish necklace of the early 1950's representing the work of several Zuni carvers including David Tsikewa and The Sam Delana Family.”
Branson (1975), p. 22 AS OF 1975 [2]
Of a row of small Zuni carvings, Branson (1975) noted:
“These are made for sale or trade rather than ceremonial use.”
Branson (1975), p. 22 AS OF 1975 [2]
Branson (1975, p. 22) illustrated a turquoise carving by Charles Loloma of Hotevilla, depicting the blue corn maidens, with the turquoise combined with ironwood and gold. [2]
Turquoise in Southwestern belief, as outsiders recorded it14 passages · 7 books
What outsiders wrote down about turquoise in Zuni, Diné and Pueblo belief. The nations are the authority.
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 49), few early settings of stones other than turquoise survive, because once turquoise became available it displaced them; she wrote that turquoise alone was held to have magical qualities and religious significance. [5]
Bedinger (1973) recorded the place of turquoise at Zuni:
“To turquoise the Zunis assign a paramount place in their religion and mythology. Veneration for the blue stone permeates their philosophy and thought.”
Bedinger (1973), p. 141 AS OF 1973 [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 143), Navajo (Diné) people revered turquoise for its beauty and firmly believed in its magic qualities, yet in their jewelry silver came first. [5]
Frank (1990), an outside observer writing in the late 1970s, opened his book with this reading:
“"Beauty" is a quality the Navajos particularly appreciate; it is a repeated theme in their songs and chants and it is manifested directly in their weaving and jewelry.”
Frank (1990), p. 3 AS OF 1990 [6]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) open their history of 1910-1990 with the stone's two roles in the Southwest:
“In the Southwest it holds special significance for Native Americans as expressed privately in their ceremonies and publicly in jewelry.”
Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 17 AS OF 2020 [10]
Writing in 1993, Tryk recorded:
“But turquoise, symbol of the all-encompassing sky, was the favorite, and possessed religious significance.”
Tryk (1993), p. 66 AS OF 1993 [16]
Tryk (1993) on the beliefs then recorded about the stone:
“Turquoise could keep the wearer from harm, maintain health, ward off evil.”
Tryk (1993), p. 66 AS OF 1993 [16]
Tryk (1993) on Navajo usage:
“For the Navajos, blue was a male turquoise and green female.”
Tryk (1993), p. 66 AS OF 1993 [16]
Recording Zuni folklore as outside observers set it down, Khazeni (2014, pp. 130–131) wrote: “In Zuni folklore, the stone carries astral significance and the radiant reflection of the Mountain of Turquoises paints the sky blue.” [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 131), turquoise was a prominent article of exchange in Zuni trade networks, and he thought it likely that the Navajo acquired the stone, and the beliefs that went with it, from the Zuni and other Pueblo peoples. [11]
According to Kunz (1890, p. 61), while Major Hyde was exploring at Cerrillos in 1880, several Pueblo men from San Domingo (now Kewa Pueblo) told him the turquoise he was taking from the old mine was sacred and should not leave their hands, and offered to buy all that might come from the mine in future. His account is an outside observer's record; the Pueblos are the authority on their own history. [4]
Bedinger (1973, p. 165) recorded a story shared by Laguna and Acoma, collected by Gunn: a maiden who lived near the sea shed bits of metal and valuable stones from her hair every time she washed it. Bedinger read it as a memory, handed down by word of mouth, of the precious materials the Spaniards brought. [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 171), a Santo Domingo (Kewa Pueblo) account recorded by White told that when their people emerged from the underworld with two other Pueblo groups, the Santo Domingos promised, before they parted, to make beads for the other Indians. [5]
Adair (1944) recorded the older carving tradition behind the Zuni fetish necklace:
“Frequently the animal spirits, Mountain Lion and Bear, were formed in small bits of turquoise and worn between the nuggets of the necklaces.”
Adair (1944), p. 148 AS OF 1944 [14]
Crosses, crescents and suns12 passages · 3 books
The double-barred cross as dragonfly or Christian sign, the crescent, and a rayed sun.
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 82), Washington Matthews wrote that the cross widely worn by Navajos was understood among them not as the Christian cross but as a symbol of the morning star, although he thought its lengthened lower arm was copied from the Christian form. [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 78), John G. Bourke obtained at Santo Domingo Pueblo in 1881 a solid silver crescent outlining the man in the moon, and was told that Navajos occasionally made the ornament and connected it with the Woman in the Western Ocean; Mrs. Stevenson had spoken of the crescent as a world symbol in Pueblo belief. Bedinger found none of these readings explained and concluded that authentic information on the naja's meaning was scarce. [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 138), the writer Charles Lummis acquired at Manuelito, near Zuni, an old Zuni wrist-guard whose silver top was engraved with what he called the sacred image of the full-rayed sun, and said he was never able to find another. [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 182), the double-barred cross resembled the Pueblos' long-established dragonfly symbol on prehistoric pottery, down to the curved end of the tail. Bedinger added that the dragonfly was sacred because it represented water, and in many pueblos, notably Zuni and Acoma, the cross was called a dragonfly. [5]
Bedinger (1973, p. 182) found it unclear why so many of these crosses end in a heart. Mera suggested an anatomical detail, as on the ancient pottery figures, while Bedinger was reminded of the heart in Christian religious paintings and thought the two symbolisms might be mixed. [5]
According to Frank (1990, p. 111, Fig. 130), the double-barred cross pendant on a Pueblo necklace of about 1915 ended in an engraved sacred heart, a Catholic symbol; he added that the double-barred form and its heart-like base were also found in Plains Indian jewelry, where they were thought to represent a stylized dragonfly. [6]
According to Frank (1990, p. 158, Fig. 193), a double-barred silver cross ending in a heart shape, circa 1870, from a San Juan Pueblo necklace of the 1890s matched a double-barred dragonfly painted on a small Zuni jar of about 1900, and he wrote that the dragonfly and the butterfly above it were both symbols for water, particularly at Zuni. [6]
According to Frank (1990, p. 177, Fig. 220), the Pueblo double-barred cross had at one time been the Pueblo and Plains "dragonfly" symbol, and the silver cross form was shared so widely that an 1880s double-barred cross that once hung on a New Mexican santo could not be assigned to an Indian, New Mexican or Mexican smith. [6]
According to Frank (1990, p. 170, Fig. 211), the "X" stamped in the center of small sandcast Pueblo-style crosses, circa 1900, was typical of Mexican work of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was, as of the late 1970s, still in use. [6]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 218), there was a short-lived movement among the White Mountain and Cibecue Apaches from 1903 to 1907 whose members wore a silver cross with a crescent moon above it on the front of the shirt or blouse, hung with small conchas hammered from dimes. [5]
Frank (1990, p. 61, Fig. 61) recorded a silver cross with a filed edge, collected in 1903 on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, that was said to be an amulet. [6]
According to Adair (1944, p. 157), when he asked about the double-barred cross, four of six people said it was Dragon-Fly and two said it was the Christian cross; he concluded that Zuni who had been taught the cross's Catholic meaning still associated its form with Dragon-Fly. [14]
Silver and turquoise in Pueblo and Diné life17 passages · 4 books
Canes, rosaries, manta pins, mosaic earrings and dance regalia, as the books describe them.
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 128), the king of Spain sent each Pueblo officer a silver-headed, ribboned cane so that their authority would be known. Many decades later, Abraham Lincoln also gave canes to the Pueblo governors. [5]
Bedinger (1973) quotes Isleta's Pablo Abeita, as recorded by Adair, on the silver rosary-bead necklaces:
“In the days before the Indians made silver jewelry, when the Isletans were married in the Catholic church, they were given a rosary bead as a symbol of obedience to the marriage pact and as a sign of obedience to the Catholic faith.”
Bedinger (1973), p. 179 AS OF 1973 [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 179), Abeita went on to say that the beads were later made of silver or coral with silver crosses between them. They were exchanged between husband and wife, and by his time almost everyone wore them, married or not. [5]
According to Frank (1990, p. 62, Fig. 62), manta pins were essential for holding women's dresses together at the shoulders and were also worn as dress ornaments. [6]
Frank (1990, Fig. 66, p. 65) on the mosaic earring as a Pueblo favorite:
“Earrings of this type seem to have been the favorites of both the Hopi and Zuni Pueblos.”
Frank (1990), p. 65 AS OF 1990 [6]
Frank (1990, p. 65, Fig. 66) described a pair of large Hopi earrings of turquoise with an abalone center fixed to a wooden backing with piñon gum mixed with the same ashes that color piki bread; the museum's catalogue said they were worn by maidens for festal occasions. [6]
According to Frank (1990, p. 65, Fig. 67), jacklas were loops of turquoise beads once worn as earrings and later hung from chunk turquoise necklaces as pendants, and as of the late 1970s they were still worn that way; on newer loops the old coral end beads had been replaced by glass or plastic. [6]
A 1907 photograph reproduced in Frank (1990) records first phase silver worn at a Hopi dance:
“This picture, taken in 1907 at the Hopi village of Hano, Arizona, during the annual summer Butterfly Dance, shows the center dancer wearing a first phase concha belt of the round variety.”
Frank (1990), p. 21 AS OF 1990 [6]
Frank (1990, Fig. 177, p. 144) reported as of the late 1970s:
“Bandolier bags are still worn at some Pueblo Indian dances, particularly by the ceremonial leaders who take corn pollen out of them to bless the dancers.”
Frank (1990), p. 144 AS OF 1990 [6]
According to Frank (1990, p. 177, Fig. 220), a necklace collected at Taos Pueblo had been assembled as a ceremonial dance piece: silver crosses and beads strung on buckskin with a grizzly bear claw pendant traded in from the Plains, the claw drilled with several holes that showed it had been worn for different purposes at different times. [6]
Bedinger (1973) wrote of Zuni mosaic:
“Most designs are representational, and many have religious associations.”
Bedinger (1973), p. 195 AS OF 1973 [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 195), the Knife-Wing figure seen in Zuni mosaic was actually a masked human figure, and it and the rainbow figure were standard mosaic motifs in the 1950s, joined later by katsina masks, sun shields and ritual dancers. [5]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 114), conducting healing ceremonies, or sings, was a frequent activity of Navajo (Diné) silverworkers. The singers she named included Grey Moustache of Sunrise Springs, Long Moustache of Klagetoh, Sam Tilden, Atsidi Sani, and later John Burnsides and Jack Tsayutcissi. [5]
According to Frank (1990, p. 107, Fig. 126), a Navajo medicine pouch acquired by the Heard Museum, probably before 1930, held three silver bars made from straight bar ingots cast in tufa and smoothed with a file, ending in hands and stamped with designs resembling lightning, arrows and snakes. He noted that such pieces were also made from meteorite fragments and stone. [6]
Adair (1944) tied the ornament of Zuni silver to the pueblo's other arts:
“Elaborate design is a characteristic of Zuñi art. The pottery designs of the ollas, and the ritual costumes of the Kachina dancers have this same rococo quality.”
Adair (1944), p. 156 AS OF 1944 [14]
Peshlakai Atsidi recalled bracelets from before metal, in the 1937 statement printed by Woodward (1946):
“He recalls that the bracelets which the Navajos wore before they used metals were made of deer horn which was boiled and bent when pliable.”
Woodward (1946), p. 72 AS OF 1946 [15]
He went on, Woodward (1946):
“These were drilled with a bone awl and set with turquoise in pinyon gum.”
Woodward (1946), p. 72 AS OF 1946 [15]
Southwest silverwork in the makers’ words14 passages · 2 books
Teachers, trading posts, the 1940s styles and the Zuni trademark, mostly from Bahti’s artist-checked book.
According to Bahti (2007, p. 11), the Zuni smith who learned from Atsidi Chon in turn agreed in 1898 to teach his own Hopi host, Sikyatala, while visiting Hopi to trade on his skills; Bahti noted that the two men, though from different Pueblo groups, were both members of the Mustard Clan. [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 11), John Lorenzo Hubbell and C. N. Cotton ran the Ganado Trading Post from about 1884, paying Navajo silversmiths to teach other Navajos and bringing in Mexican smiths as teachers too, with an eye on the tourist market. [7]
Bahti (2007) on the lightweight tourist silver of the Fred Harvey era:
“This style, dubbed "Fred Harvey jewelry" after the major buyer, could more accurately be called "railroad jewelry," reflecting the origin of the market for these items.”
Bahti (2007), p. 12 AS OF 2007 [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 12), manufactured copies of Indian jewelry began to appear in the 1920s, first in the Southwest and then from Denver to New York, which eventually led to the founding of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 12), by the 1940s traders and the Museum of Northern Arizona had helped steer each nation toward a distinct style: Zuni smiths toward lapidary work in shell and stone, Navajo smiths toward plain silver and silver with a few turquoise settings, and Hopi smiths toward overlay using Hopi textile and pottery designs. [7]
Bahti (2007) on the idea of "traditional" jewelry:
“Forget that squash-blossom necklaces were hardly traditional when they first appeared in the 1870s.”
Bahti (2007), p. 12 AS OF 2007 [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 152), the Hopi Guild was established after World War II to provide silversmithing instruction under the GI Bill, and it trained generations of Hopi silversmiths until about 1992, by which time most were learning from practicing silversmiths; Elmer Satala Jr. was a member of its last graduating class. [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 142), Ray and Mary Rosetta of Santo Domingo Pueblo invented the handmade silver tube necklace about 1958–59; small silver tube beads had been used in coral and turquoise necklaces before, but no one had made a necklace entirely of handmade tube beads. Their son Nick told Bahti the name came from dealer Ed Young's wife, who drew a necklace through her fingers and exclaimed that it was like liquid silver. [7]
Bahti (2007, p. 143) records Nick Rosetta's account of the process: sheet silver cut into strips, pre-shaped in a groove pounded into a cottonwood stump, then pulled through a draw plate into tubes, using wax in the final draws — five pulls on 28-gauge but sixteen on heavier 20-gauge. [7]
As Zuni jeweler Loren Panteah told Bahti (2007):
“We started thinking of protecting our own designs.”
Bahti (2007), p. 133 AS OF 2007 [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 133), after Loren Panteah and Octavius Seotewa approached the Zuni tribal council, the tribe formed a Zuni trademark committee and worked toward a tribally owned certification mark, with each Zuni user certified by the tribe; the tribe then passed the Certification for Zuni Made Arts and Crafts Ordinance, and in January 2006 appointed Panteah, Carlton Jamon and Tony Eriacho as commissioners to implement it. [7]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 7), each artist profiled in the book reviewed and corrected Bahti's notes, a working draft and the final draft, so that every word carried the artist's approval. [7]
Writing in 1997, Bassman dated turquoise's arrival in Navajo silver:
“turquoise was first set in silver by Navajo silversmiths about 1880, and by 1890 it was used in abundance.”
Bassman (1997), p. 6 AS OF 1997 [9]
Bassman (1997, p. 6) added that by the 1920s and 1930s turquoise was used extensively, often as very large, heavy stones, which made a piece worth more when it was pawned. [9]
Mesoamerica and the Andes4 passages · 3 books
Moctezuma’s gifts, inlaid skulls in London, and the Royal Tombs of Sipán.
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 24), Moctezuma presented Cortés with gifts of turquoise, including turquoise mosaic pieces, that had little value to the Spaniards, who were far more interested in silver and gold; several such pieces are now in the British Museum. [3]
According to Kunz (1890, p. 62), the Christy Collection in London held two human skulls inlaid with turquoise, and a finger-ring cut from the whorl of a shell inlaid with turquoise and red spondylus shell. [4]
According to Kunz (1890, p. 62), Torquemada recorded that the Mexicans placed a fragment of the green stone in the mouths of distinguished chiefs when they were buried. [4]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 67), the Royal Tombs of Sipán in Peru were found intact, with items of gold, silver and turquoise including metal masks, a royal scepter and ear spools inlaid with turquoise. [1]
Tibet, China and the ancient Old World10 passages · 3 books
Rosaries, Lamaist images and the Qianlong court, with Ur and the beads Laufer doubted.
Laufer (1913) recorded:
“In the religious service turquoises are employed, strung in the shape of beads, for rosaries, 108 beads being the usual number.”
Laufer (1913), p. 13 AS OF 1913 [8]
On turquoise-set images, Laufer (1913) noted a way collectors told them apart:
“Buddhist images, thus treated, may readily be recognized as Lamaist deities, as the Chinese never adopt this method.”
Laufer (1913), p. 13 AS OF 1913 [8]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 13), the gold sarcophagus of the first Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo near Shigatse was covered with ornamental work and studded with turquoises and precious stones. [8]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 13), the Tibetan annals described a shrine at bSam-yas, the oldest Tibetan temple (mid-eighth century), with beams said to be of turquoise; he suggested that, if not a figure of speech, the stones were inlaid as a mosaic. [8]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 62), under the Qianlong emperor turquoise was first sanctioned for the imperial cult: the emperor wore a turquoise rosary when officiating at the Temple of the Moon, and turquoise was set in court girdles, helmets and sword-sheaths. [8]
According to Branson (1975, p. 57), a turquoise-encrusted box of silver and gilt was used to carry prayers written on cloth or rice paper, and was usually worn around the neck as a pendant. [2]
Writing in 1975, Branson recorded of the Tibetans:
“The Tibetans attach special powers to it and look upon it as a thing in itself and not as a stone.”
Branson (1975), p. 56 AS OF 1975 [2]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 49), Sumerian tombs at Ur dating to about 2500 BC yielded luxury items inlaid with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian. [1]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 39), turquoise beads found with carnelian and lapis lazuli in the kurgans of Anau, placed with a child's burial, had been claimed as Persian, but he judged their date unsettled and their Persian origin unproved. [8]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 54), precious stones such as lapis lazuli, carnelian and agate were known from Chinese graves, but as far as he and Chinese experts knew, turquoise had not yet been found in any Chinese grave. [8]
Persia and the Islamic world: firuza, the courts and the sky17 passages · 1 book
Firuza and victory, Safavid gifts, Mughal courts and the thrones of the Shahnama.
According to Khazeni (2014, pp. 12–13), the Persian word for turquoise, firuza, shares a root with the word for victory, piruzi, most likely because of the stone's imperial connection and a long-held belief that a rider carrying a piece of turquoise would never fall from his horse or see defeat. [11]
Khazeni (2014) summed up what the stone meant across the Islamic empires:
“The most widespread meanings that turquoise took on were its function as a stone of imperial victory and power and as a celestial shade of blue.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 13 AS OF 2014 [11]
Khazeni (2014) closed his chapter on the colour itself:
“So unique was its hue in nature that turquoise became the classification of its signature shade.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 26 AS OF 2014 [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 25), Nasir al-Din Tusi's Tansuqnama-yi Ilkhani linked the stone's colour to the sky and air, holding that a dustless, clear blue firmament gave turquoise more radiance. [11]
Khazeni (2014) on a court custom recorded in Ibn Mansur's Javahirnama:
“Because turquoise was thought to be auspicious and good for the eyes, Ibn Mansur wrote, the rulers of old looked upon it when waking in the morning or on seeing the new moon (mah-i naw), making it the “stone of the eye” (hajr al-ʿayn).”
Khazeni (2014), p. 37 AS OF 2014 [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 105), James Baillie Fraser found in 1822 that turquoise was believed locally to carry talismanic virtue, and that its native name, 'Feerozah', meant victorious, triumphant, prosperous. [11]
Khazeni (2014) on how the colour was made in the tile workshops:
“In the workshops of Eurasian oasis cities, artists and craftsmen mixed roasted copper, lead, and tin to produce the shade of firuza.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 14 AS OF 2014 [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 14), tile makers in the imperial cities along the eastern Islamic trade routes, such as Samarqand, Herat, Tabriz and Isfahan, reproduced the seven celestial shades of the haft rang, turquoise blue among them, and set turquoise-glazed tiles on the domes, minarets and portals of mosques and other monuments. [11]
Turquoise also moved as a diplomatic gift. Khazeni (2014) records:
“Thus, the first Safavid monarch, Shah Ismaʿil I, famously sent turquoise stones as gifts to Ismaʿil Adil Shah of Goa in 1513 and to the Portuguese admiral Alphonse de Albuquerque the following year.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 13 AS OF 2014 [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 13), after the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 the Ottomans looted turquoise-jewelled objects from Shah Ismaʿil's collection in Tabriz and took them to the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. [11]
Khazeni (2014) on the turquoise throne of Persian epic:
“Turquoise thrones appear in various episodes of the Shahnama, which describes the seats of power of the “Kayanid Crown” as studded with the stone.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 57 AS OF 2014 [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 58), the Turquoise Throne of the Deccan passed to the Bahmani sultans in the fourteenth century and was used by every Bahmani ruler until the last, Sultan Mahmud (1482–1518), who dismantled it for its gems. [11]
The Venetian envoy Michele Membré, at the court of Shah Tahmasp I, described the royal guards (qurchis), as Khazeni (2014, pp. 75–76) quotes him: “And they wear a belt of massy gold with turquoises and rubies.” [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 79), Chardin saw the Safavid court give swords encrusted with turquoise, then valued at four hundred pistoles, as robes-of-honour gifts (khilʿat) to envoys of the European trading companies. [11]
Among his examples of turquoise at the Mughal court, Khazeni (2014) quoted the English envoy Sir Thomas Roe on the golden scales used at Jahangir's birthday weighing in 1617:
“the borders set with small stones, Rubies and Turkey”
Khazeni (2014), p. 49 AS OF 2014 [11]
Khazeni (2014) on the 1618 Mughal painting known as Jahangir's Dream, in which Jahangir embraces Shah ʿAbbas on a globe:
“The world-conquering Jahangir wears a ring of veined, sky-blue turquoise on his right hand.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 53 AS OF 2014 [11]
Khazeni (2014) on the horse trappings of the Central Asian Turkmen:
“Sky-blue turquoise inlaid on the harnesses, collars, bridles, and saddles of Turkmen horses reveals the pastoral side of the Timurid Central Asian and Persianate synthesis that rendered the stone an auspicious talisman.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 51 AS OF 2014 [11]
Turquoise in tile and stone, and its road into Europe8 passages · 1 book
Turquoise Mountain, blue-tiled mosques, the Taj Mahal, and how Europe priced the stone.
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 21), the lost Ghurid city of Firuzkuh, “Turquoise Mountain,” thought to have stood near the Minaret of Jam in northwestern Afghanistan, was named for the stone although no major turquoise deposits lie nearby; the Mongols levelled it in the thirteenth century. [11]
Khazeni (2014) on the Blue Mosque of Tabriz:
“In 1465, a mosque complex was constructed in Tabriz of tiles so blue that it came to be known as Firuza-yi Islam—the Turquoise of Islam.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 63 AS OF 2014 [11]
Khazeni (2014) quoted the seventeenth-century Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi on Sinan's Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, completed in 1557:
“However, in the centre of the arch above the qibla gate, there is a Nishapur turquoise as large as a round bowl that dazzles the beholder.”
Khazeni (2014), p. 46 AS OF 2014 [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 68), the Taj Mahal, completed in 1653, was inlaid by the pietra dura method (called pachikari in Agra) with slivers of precious stones from across Asia, including turquoise from Iran and Tibet and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, arranged in botanical patterns in the marble. [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 69), the Friday Mosque that Shah Jahan built at Thatta in Sindh in 1647 had, in his words, the most elaborate display of tile work in the Indian subcontinent, its domes and vaulted interiors inlaid with turquoise and white tiles in floral patterns. [11]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 15), in European markets, where gold and silver were the standards, turquoise lost the symbolic value it held in the Islamic empires, and its worth fell as it went from a precious to a semiprecious stone. [11]
Khazeni (2014) quotes Shylock, in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1598), mourning a turquoise his daughter traded for a monkey:
““Out upon her: thou tortur’st me Tuball, it was my Turkies, I had it of Leah when I was a Batchellor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of Monkies.””
Khazeni (2014), p. 80 AS OF 2014 [11]
In late Qajar Iran, Khazeni (2014) notes, turquoise stayed a personal keepsake:
“Throughout Qajar Iran, the stone remained a keepsake, and Ringler Thomson recalled seeing ring stones inscribed with mottoes of love: “Darling” (nazanin), “I am your sacrifice” (fidayat sham), or simply “Come” (biya).”
Khazeni (2014), p. 124 AS OF 2014 [11]
Frequently asked questions
How long has turquoise been used in the Southwest?
The earliest date on this page is at least A.D. 300, for worked turquoise from Snaketown, a Hohokam site on the Gila River excavated in the 1930s (Lowry 2002). Lowry (2010) describes the first work as drilled and strung beads and small mosaic pieces set on wood, shell or bone. Around A.D. 1300 the Hohokam began making finer chip mosaic, a method Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo peoples later took up.
When did Native silversmiths start setting turquoise in silver?
Bassman (1997) dates it to about 1880 for Navajo silversmiths, with the stone used in abundance by 1890. The silver styles themselves began in the middle of the nineteenth century, by Lowry’s (2010) dating, and silverworking was introduced by the Spanish (Hammack 1975).
What does turquoise mean in Southwest cultures?
The nations themselves are the authority on that. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation are the places to learn it. What outside writers recorded: Tryk (1993), writing of the early Navajo smiths, describes turquoise as a symbol of the sky with religious significance, believed to protect the wearer and keep them well, and Bedinger (1973) wrote that the stone holds a paramount place in Zuni religion and mythology.
Is the double-barred cross a Christian cross?
The books report both readings. Bedinger (1973) noted that many pueblos, Zuni and Acoma notably among them, called the cross a dragonfly, a water symbol also painted on Pueblo pottery. Of six answers Adair (1944) recorded, four said dragonfly and two said the Christian cross. Bedinger also wondered whether the heart at the base of many crosses mixes the two symbolisms.
Where else in the world was turquoise prized?
Laufer (1913) recorded turquoise rosaries of 108 beads in Tibetan religious service; in Persian the stone’s name is related to the word for victory (Khazeni 2014); Sumerian tombs at Ur dating back to 2500 BC held turquoise inlay (Lowry 2010); and Moctezuma gave turquoise mosaics to Cortés (Chambless & Ryan 2021).
A note on accuracy. We strive for accuracy, and this page is continuously updated with new information from the artists, their families, and the community. Corrections welcome.
Sources
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2010.
- Branson, Oscar T. Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries. Santa Fe: Treasure Chest Publications, 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Chambless, Philip, and Mike Ryan II. Turquoise in America, Part One: The Great American Turquoise Rush, 1890–1910. Revised first edition. Callais Press, 2021. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2021.
- Kunz, George F. Gems and Precious Stones of North America. New York: The Scientific Publishing Company, 1890. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1890.
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1973.
- Frank, Larry, with the assistance of Millard J. Holbrook II. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868-1930. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1990. First published 1978 by New York Graphic Society. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1990.
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Laufer, Berthold. Notes on Turquois in the East. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. XIII, No. 1. Chicago, 1913. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1913.
- Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1997. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1997.
- Ryan, Mike, II, and Philip Chambless. Turquoise in America, Part Two: 1910–1990. Callais Press, 2020. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2020.
- Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. The California World History Library 20. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2014.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.
- Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways (Arizona Department of Transportation), 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1944.
- Woodward, Arthur. A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing. With field notes by Richard Van Valkenburgh. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 14, 2d ed. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, December 1946 (first edition 1938). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1946.
- Tryk, Sheila. Santa Fe Indian Market: Showcase of Native American Art. Photography by Mark Nohl; introduction by Allan Houser. Santa Fe, NM: Tierra Publications, in cooperation with SWAIA (Southwestern Association on Indian Affairs), 1993. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1993.
Related
- The Timelessness of Turquoise
- Persian Turquoise: The Nishapur Mines
- Egyptian Turquoise: The Historic Sinai Mines
- Turquoise in Tibet, Mongolia and China
- Turquoise Mosaics of Ancient Mexico
- The Written History of Turquoise
- Tracing the Turquoise Road
- The 1881 Record
- The Naja
- The Naja: The Crescent of Southwest Jewelry
- The Squash Blossom Necklace & the Naja
- Turquoise Mines
- Culture, Respect and the Law