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TOULITIKA (singular: toulitiko) are rare and prized antique textiles from the village of Touliata, in northern Kefalonia, Greece.



Toulitika share many technical characteristics more typical of Ionian pile rugs: The knots are symmetric Gordian knots, betraying perhaps an Anatolian heritage, at least in technique. The colors generally leaning towards the Venetian. The designs, while showing a sisterhood with western Greek island and Greek island pile textiles in general, have a preponderance for abstract medallions or geometric medallions, without a strict sense of balance and proportion.

Kefalonia has a rich tradition, as do many Greek islands, of course, of hilltop villages and hilltop monasteries. These small - approximately 35cm x 150cm - pile carpets were made with a very specific purpose in mind: To soften the perch of the monks at these monasteries, as they spent long, sacred hours in prayer seated on hard, bare wooden benches.

Where, how, and when this Kefalonian tradition began is impossible to pinpoint, but by all accounts - written, material, and archaeological - this tradition of cushion or seat cover may have indeed been a leftover tradition from the Mycenaean and the Romans - see the pile textiles, albeit in a more secular, elite function, depicted in the famous mosaics of the Roman villa at Skala - distilled by the Venetians, then given an entirely Greek twist.