On the Semantics of Pendants.
Many archaeologists, when preparing the aforementioned finds for publication, often limit themselves to merely stating the fact of the discovery and providing a superficial description, while these pendants-amulets had a close connection with the complex worldview system of the Iranian and other ethnic groups of Central Asia. It seems that the interest in the function and role of the hand as a tool of creation did not arise immediately. F. Engels, speaking about the creative role of the hand, wrote that the hand is not only a tool of labor but also its direct product. There is an enthusiastic description of the appearance of the water and fertility goddess Ardvi. An unknown poet, describing her beautiful appearance, her lush garments, and precious decorations, emphasizes:
Truly her hands are beautiful,
Stronger they are than horse thighs.
Reflected here are other passages, in particular, the harvesting of crops, archery, when the heroic strength of the hand was required to draw the bowstring. The origins of the cult of the hand, as noted earlier, may lie in the very nature of the hand of the creator, the maker of all earthly goods. Among the Tajiks, there is a saying: "The hand by itself is a golden bracelet." Amulets with hand symbols, as well as handprints, are a rather ancient and widespread phenomenon in the archaeology of Central Asia. For example, palm imprints are known at least since the Paleolithic era. Currently, more than twenty sites of the oldest "hand" images are known both within our country and beyond its borders.
There is no doubt that the ancient master crafted fist-shaped amulets not without reason, but with a specific intent based on magic and other forms of early thinking. It has also been noted that such amulets are found only in female burials. According to the chronicle of Beishi, women wove them, along with "colorful balls," into their braids and let them down on their shoulders in threads. This way of wearing jewelry was still practiced among the Tajiks until recently. Apparently, based on this, F. Petri believed that women wore these pendants to enhance sexual potency. According to materials from the 2nd royal burial mound of Tilya-Tepa, they could also be sewn onto the sleeves of a robe. As noted earlier, unlike many amulets of this series, the Tilya-Tepa fists were carved from various precious stones and set in gold casings.
In the European part of the country, they are also more often found as part of women's jewelry, which further confirms their association with female cults. According to G. F. Chursin, the fists, shaped like a "kuki," served as a protection against the evil eye, literally being "repelling amulets." In Italy, people once wore them as keychains, similar to the miniature coral hand images from Kurkat.
Among the Sogdians, rituals associated with the cult of the hand began as early as the cradle of the child. In particular, according to Chinese travelers, for ritual purposes, boys' palms were smeared with honey. M. E. Masson linked fists and other hand images with the symbol of human power. As sources show, in some cases, the hand served as a sign of dynastic loyalty. For example, the historian Tabari, in his accounts of the first Sasanian kings, indicates that when informers notified Shapur I (241-272) of his son Hormuzd Artashir's intention to seize his father's throne, Hormuzd, allegedly as a sign of loyalty to his father's crown, cut off his hand below the elbow, packaged it, and sent it with a cover letter from Khorasan, where he was a governor, to his father's court.
Thus, writes Tabari, he removed any suspicions from himself, for as Tabari further writes, according to the customs of the Sasanian kings, a person with a physical defect was not allowed to occupy the royal throne. Of course, all this is no more than a legend. Moreover, as Tabari himself reports, Hormuzd did not neglect his father's throne and soon after Shapur I's death minted coins with his name.
The Fifth Type of Fist Pendants