Mirrors of the Ancient Turks: A study Based on Findings from Central and Inner Asia

Among the many and varied findings from kurgans – the graves of Central and Inner Asian Turks - the placing of mirrors, especially bronze ones, is very important. Most of these mirrors were found in situ in positions such as the belt, hand, head, and chest of skeletons. This shows that these objects were used not only in daily life but they also had a place in Shamanistic practices as well as symbolical meaning. Moreover it was noted that while some of them were found whole, some were only found in fragments. The ones found in fragments were broken consciously. So this point again proves their dual-usage. The mirrors of the Ancient Turks were found in the graves of men, women, and children. We can classify these mirrors by their period, according to the form of their handles: looped handles, short handles at the rim, long handles at the rim. Some of them had no ornamentation while some of them had decorations on their reverse side. In the graves of Huns and Gokturks in particular, we observed Chinese mirrors or their imitations. Given that we think this point needs seperate research, this element was not detailed in our study. The aim of this research was to present and discuss the mirrors which originated from Central and Inner Asian early period Turkish graves