Erzincan Refahiye District Cengerli Village Rug Weaving

Refahiye is a district located in the northwest Erzincan province in Turkey, which connects Eastern and Central Anatolian regions and hosted important civilizations throughout history. Cengerli village in Refahiye district reflects this diverse culture. An significant cultural heritage is rugs, which have played a key role in the diverse Turkish weaving arts. Rug weaving could shed light on the culture and lifestyle of the past. The motifs on these rugs revealed that weaving has been used as a tool to reflect the weaver’s emotions, thoughts and dreams such as love, birth, death, joy, and sadness. The combination of the motifs used in rug compositions are also different based on the regions. The village of Cengerli, where rug weaving has always been predominant, was selected as the study area. In Cengerli village, every home has several rugs with different motifs and compositions. However, currently there are no weavers in this region. Furthermore, no study was conducted on the rugs of this region. Thus, the present study analyzed six hand-woven rugs with various compositional properties out of the sixteen products identified in the field survey conducted in Cengerli village in 2021. Each rug sample was analyzed and interpreted using the review form. The present study aimed to investigate the raw material, motifs, color and composition properties in rug weaving, the local meanings of the motifs apart from general meanings, to document the original features, to contribute to the cultural heritage in the relevant literature and cultural legacy of the region. Also, it could be suggested that when Cengerli village rugs would acquire geographical indications, the current would contribute to Turkish culture. This study data were presented with photographs and computer drawings.

Keywords

Cengerli Village, Rug Weaving, Motif, Composition.