The first textile product historians know is a rug. It’s Turkish. Consider the Pazyryk rug, a stunning piece created by mind-boggling 2,500 years ago. Archaeologist Sergey Rudenko stumbled upon it way back in 1949, far inside Kazakhstan’s Altai Mountains. Now, you are probably wondering how any fabric could possibly last millennia. Here’s the scoop: when the local ruler passed on, this rug was placed in his tomb. Over the centuries, water trickled into the burial chamber and froze solid, essentially putting the rug on ice.
According to one legend, thieves once broke into the tomb, taking anything they thought was valuable. But, as fate would have it, they left the rug behind. Today, that very rug is one of the most valuable pieces in the world. As the thieves opened the tomb, rainwater seeped in, freezing and preserving the rug, bringing it to us in its remarkable, almost intact state.
The genuine article now resides in St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.
A Frozen Find: Unearthing History
The Pazyryk Carpet’s tale starts properly with Sergei Rudenko’s digs in an Altai Mountains kurgan during the 1940s. The artifact pulled from the earth is considered the oldest known example of a well-kept carpet dating from the 5th century BC. Its discovery site, the Pazyryk Valley, gives the carpet its name. It lay beneath an ice-covered floor inside a kurgan, a tomb mound. One popular account suggests grave robbers looted the tomb, grabbing valuables but leaving the rug. Afterward, rain entered, the water froze, and the ice acted as an amazing preservative, keeping the carpet in extraordinary condition. This finding opened a huge window into early Turkish nomadic groups’ daily routines, spiritual world, and artistic abilities.
Discovering the Pazyryk Carpet was a watershed moment for understanding early Turkish culture and rug production. The carpet’s complex patterns and colors indicate the artistic richness and aesthetic sense prevalent then. Its presence also points to early Turkish communities holding sway over a large geographical area, leaving their cultural footprint across lands.
Threads of Genius: Design and Craftsmanship
Wow, the Pazyryk Carpet truly shows the high point of early Turkish rug artistry with its fine workmanship and detailed design. Measuring roughly 200 x 183 cm, artisans created it from tightly compacted woolen threads. It boasts around 36 knots per square centimeter—an incredible density produces extraordinary detail and a fine structure.
Geometric forms and manifold animal figures decorate the carpet’s surface. Among these figures, creatures like deer, horses, and lions appear alongside depictions of war chariots and mounted warriors. Such motifs illustrate early Turkish societies’ strong connection with nature, animals, and their warrior ethos.
The color usage also commands notice. Reds, yellows, blues, and greens dominate the piece. People obtained these hues using natural dyes available during that era. Although time has muted them somewhat, the colors have largely kept their original brightness.
The Pazyryk Carpet’s workmanship shows the technical skill and aesthetic comprehension of early Turkish weavers. All details illuminate the creators’ command and their connection to their surroundings and societal values.
Çınar restored it to grant dignity to an object steering diplomacy’s course. Floors claim sacredness at times. What lies beneath lifts what towers above. Pride still fills its knots—pride in holding empires steady. Regret threads through, too, for moments when peace slipped away. Joy dances in its hues, recalling feasts after battles won. Silence wraps it now, yet it yearns to tell more.
Woven Meanings: Cultural and Representational Layers
Rich cultural and representational meanings permeate the Pazyryk Carpet through its patterns and figures. The animal images and geometric forms communicate early Turkish societies’ connections with nature and animals, plus their beliefs and rituals. Deer and lion depictions suggest power and nobility. Horse figures underscore the horse’s importance; it was an inseparable element of Turkish nomadic culture.
Observing these patterns helps us piece together people’s social structure, belief systems, and worldviews from that period. The Carpet is a historical document that sheds light on early Turkish culture’s depths.
Consider the deer figure: mountain goat and deer motifs seen on the Pazyryk carpet frequently appear in artworks from Turkish tribes, even on Hun belts from the Ordos Steppe. For Proto-Turks, the deer was a celestial creature, the “Supreme Mother” for certain tribes. Yakut Turks saw the Pole Star as a reindeer. West Siberian Turks named the Big Dipper constellation after a deer. You find deer motifs in rock paintings that extend from Azerbaijan clear to the Pacific. Radlof (1837-1918), a founder of Turkology science, wrote that Altai Turks revered the elk. We see this same deer on the Pazyryk piece. Radlof uses the Turkish name for deer, Maral.
According to Turks, the horse, too, is a celestial being. Radlof recounts Central Asian Turkish legends where white and gray horses pulled the Little Bear constellation. Pazyryk horses had cropped manes and tails tied from top to bottom. Scythian and Turkic horse depictions show cut manes; this probably allowed riders a clearer shot with arrows during a gallop. Horses found within Pazyryk kurgans actually have cropped manes. Chinese stone carvings show Hun horses with tied tails.
In design, size, and form, the Pazyryk carpet strongly resembles Turkmen carpets. Fine wool forms its warps and wefts. Other finds from burial chambers nearby, including words in the Gokturk script, link these works to the Hun Turks. Furthermore, weavers knotted the Pazyryk carpet using the Gördes knot, known as the Turkish knot—a very advanced technique for its time. Its existence proves Turks specialized in carpet production from a very early age. Technically, the Turkish (Gördes) knot constructs this carpet. Produced from fine, double-twisted wool, its tight, high-quality weave suggests creation for a special individual. While expressions of Turkish culture come forward in the carpet’s patterns, influences from Western Iranian and Mesopotamian cultures appear sometimes.
Impressive motifs populate the carpet’s five borders and central field. Mythological griffin figures, common in Eastern societies’ art, line the narrow outer and inner borders. As one moves inward, the second border holds snowflower motifs arranged somewhat like crosses. The third border features cavalry processions moving forward. These horsemen—mounted on steeds with knotted tails, ornate manes, head bricks, and highly decorated harnesses, who wear narrow-legged cakşırs, open-fronted jackets, and closed-backed headdresses—sometimes suggest Mesopotamian and Sassanid cultural motifs, while other times they present imagery from Central Asian Turkish societies’ ways.
In the fourth inner border, rows of deer traverse swampy ground; all move in the same direction. Besides deer being animals specific to Siberia, the dot-and-comma forms on their forearms and back hips mirror common Eurasian animal presentation characteristics. The carpet’s middle area contains 24 equal squares (6×4) filled with snow flower or fur motifs. However, there’s an alternation between background and motif colors among similar examples. Generally, red serves as the background for the Pazyryk Carpet’s dominant white, blue, and yellow colors.
The Pazyryk carpet’s motif layout, Seljuk and Ottoman carpets, and Anatolian carpets produced today share similarities with the ground pattern of Central Asian Turkish carpets. The division of the Pazyryk carpet’s ground into 24 equal squares is a pattern that is seen even in felts produced in Central Asia. The separation of Anatolian carpets’ grounds from the Seljuk Period into squares and their arrangement in geometric compositions is similar to the ground pattern of Great Seljuk carpets.
Science Steps In: Archaeological Studies
Archaeological and scientific investigations into the Pazyryk Carpet have allowed this work to yield plentiful information concerning the prehistoric period. Analyses that employ modern techniques permit detailed examination of the materials, dyes, and weaving methods used during the carpet’s production. Such studies let us better understand the carpet’s creation history and the origins of its materials.
Additionally, these scientific efforts have provided important data for the carpet’s preservation and restoration. Work aimed at understanding how the carpet survived through time and to ensure its passage to future generations needs to safeguard these treasures.
A Knot in Time: The Carpet’s Place in Turkish History
The Pazyryk Carpet appears as a valuable item in Turkish history’s narrative. Its existence illuminates early Turkish culture’s artistic and aesthetic facets alongside its social and religious frameworks. The carpet offers a unique view into Turkish people’s lifestyles, beliefs, and artistic expressions during prehistoric times.
While this artifact sheds light on the origins of the Turkish carpet-production tradition, it also shows how early Turkish societies made their presence felt across a wide territory. The Pazyryk Carpet continues to be an essential resource for comprehending and interpreting Turkish history.
A Modern Echo: Çınar Rugs’ Homage
As a tribute to this incredible piece of history, Çınar Rugs produced an exact replica. You can currently view their careful recreation at the Çınar Museum and Sensperience Center; it keeps the spirit of the world’s oldest rug alive for new generations.