One of the most outstanding finds on Fayaztepa, discovered in 1968, was the Triada composition depicting…
Village women and townspeople embroidered interior panels used to decorate the premises during weddings and other festivities, steppe women, no less skilled craftswomen, decorated carpets, small bags and clothes with embroidery.
Among the world-famous embroiderers are Uzbek women of the Lakai and Kungrat tribes populating the south of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the north of Afghanistan in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.
Until now, scholars cannot figure out the content of the patterns of «steppe» embroidery. One of the most mysterious is the “onion” motif with two horn-shaped curls diverging at the top on Lakai uuk-kap similar to a female figurine.
In this regard, this motif clearly traces a connection with the ancient Turkic mother goddess Umai, the patroness of women in childbirth, one of the key figures in the Tengrian pantheon. One of the meanings of the name Umai is the uterus, which means that there is a reason to see the image of the uterus in this motif.
