Ghalin History

TITLE: Pile Carpet

ORIGIN: Persia Empire

EOCH. PERIOD: Early Iron Age

DATE: Pazyryk Culture. 5th – 4th century BC

PLACE OF FINDING: Altai Territory, Pazyryk Boundary, the Valley of the River Bolshoy Ulagan

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE: Pazyryk Barrow No. 5 (excavations by S.I. Rudenko, 1949)

MATERIAL: Wool

TECHNIQUE: Turkish knot, c.3600,000 knots per sq. m. (232 knots per sq.in.)

DIMENSIONS : 183×200 cm

LOCATION: Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia

NOTE:

The Pazyryk carpet is considered the world’s oldest known carpet. When examining this artifact, one cannot help but marvel at the natural ice that preserved it in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia. Although discovered amidst Scythian artifacts, experts posit that it originated in Iran, drawing this conclusion from the striking resemblance of its design to the stone carvings and sculptures found in Persepolis. Along the inner border of the carpet, a line of elks is depicted, while the outer border showcases twenty-eight horsemen, seemingly transporting the throne of King Xerxes to Persepolis. In the carpet’s field, square shapes adorned with large rings captivate the observer’s attention.