Başak (wheat ear)

What does it mean?

For thousands of years in Anatolia, from Hittite and Late Hittite reliefs to Ottoman wall paintings, carved wood and stone, and kilims, the wheat ear has stood for plenty and fertility. On Late Hittite reliefs from Karkamış the goddess Kubaba holds a mirror, a pomegranate and a wheat ear, and women carrying ears walk towards her. In Anatolia today ears of wheat are still hung on walls, heads down, for the plenty of the house and the harvest, and used as amulets against the evil eye; finding a double-headed ear is lucky. Among the Bayat kilims of Afyonkarahisar there is a group called the “wheat-ear kilim” ^[1].

Same theme

Sources

1. Semiha Altıer, “Anadolu Türk Kültüründe Buğday/Başak ve Görsel Dile Aktarımı”, Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi 12, 2022