Pazyryk Carpet
The carpet weaving industry has been flourishing in Iran for a long time, and it is still unrivaled in the world. We have heard this a lot, but what is the document that could back this statement up? The Pazyryk Carpet stands witness.
To answer this question, we dedicated this blog to a rug that, although not like the Aladdin carpet is magical enough to fly, can take us on a journey in time.
They discovered the Pazyryk carpet in a valley called Pazyryk, in an old tomb, almost destroyed, on the Mongolian border. Archaeologists found Pazyryk while a thick layer of ice protected it in a vault, about 25 centuries.
This valley is part of the Altai Mountains, and the height of this mountain is 5400 meters and has a cold climate. So, all the equipment in the grave with Pazyryk has been frozen and has remained until now. Including the body of a Scythian lady. She was one of the nobles, and the Scythians placed her in a coffin with images of deer and leopard engraved on it. She was young and bald, and Scythians carefully mummified the body so that there were still tattoos on her corps. All around her were expensive antiquity, and the Pazyryk carpet was one of them.
Other than that, they uncovered bodies of six horses in separate vaults, which are a sign of the aristocracy of the Scythian lady. In this tomb, there was a European pine tree trunk. Other objects found in the tomb were gilded scarves, gift utensils, the glorious ones in which they kept the coriander seeds.
All of that confirms that the Pazyryk region was once a busy and commercial region ruled by the Scythians.
Pazyryk is the oldest carpet in the world and dates back to centuries BC. According to Rudenko, a Russian scientist, this carpet belongs to the time of the Persian Empire.
Some believe that the carpet belongs to Nineveh because this style of Carpet weaving was prevalent in Nineveh. It is nice to know that the tomb where the rug was, was found in the north of Mount Altai, which is located on the border of Mongolia and belonged to the Scythian king.
The Scythians, also known as the Saka, were a nomadic tribe and lived in years before the Achaemenid. Some say they were from the great family and tribe of Aryans.
The Scythians were hardworking and artistic people whose scattered speeches Found by Socrates, Aristotle, Herodotus, and Ptolemy.
Some other scholars attribute Pazyryk to the Medes and Parthians and issue different theories as to the exact date of the carpet but still more true that the Pazyryk Carpet belonged to the Scythians, they were herdsmen, and this carpet was woven with wool from their livestock.
Much research has been done on the carpet with various devices, including radioactive, to determine its exact date, but the results were different from the previous time. According to Rodnico’s subsequent studies on Persepolis designs, there are many similarities between these two works, especially in their designs.
They all agree upon the date of this carpet and how many years it was under ice. The approximate dates are in coincidence with the Achaemenid dynasty, the fourth and fifth centuries BC and the age of Pazyryk is estimated at 2,500 years.
Pazyryk is now in the Russia Armitage Museum and looks like an almost square Carpet, one side of which was rotten due to the moisture of the tomb, which has now been restored.
The exact size of this rug is 1.98 by 1.89 meters, and it has 3600 symmetrical knots and pairs. It is one of the most beautiful carpets ever woven in the world. It is truly one of the glorious symbols of Persian art.
Many woven items have been carefully and obsessively designed. Behind each of them lies a long story; On both sides of the carpet are flowers that have a Babylonian design and this design was common in the ages Before Christ.
This carpet has five margins and a circle, and in the middle of this carpet, you can see flowers with four lotus leaves around these flowers blue, and very dazzling flowers are still visible, which are more now more common in Turkish carpets.
It seems that the Pazyryk Carpet of Iran was the first carpet to be used as an example for other cultures to start the carpet weaving industry.
The colors used in Pazyryk are bright and lively colors, such as blue, yellow, red, etc., which are dull today, but they must have had a bright and dazzling spark in the past.
The rim is arranged from the inside to the outside of the horsemen with their riders in a row, followed by spotted deer, strange mythical animals, and at the end another row of flowers.
24 8-feathered flowers in the middle of the carpet, the four petals of which are made of lotus flowers and are known as 8-feathered drawings. For more decoration and beauty, they designed small flowers around each border.
One of the unique patterns of this carpet is 28 horsemen whose role has been immortalized and each of their faces and hats, which are completely Iranian by the way.
Pazyryk Carpet has been elegantly designed, these horses have been woven with very unimaginable details, for example, their tails. Woven Horses have been used during wartime, just how their ancestors painted their victory over some big games on cave walls just to see it in reality too. In Pazyryk even the riders’ clothes are designed with incredible Accuracy.
Other animals in Pazyryk are deer. This type of deer is known as yellow-spotted deer and has broad horns and was specific to Iran and is grazing in Pazyryk. They are a view of the beautiful old nature. Iran has been exhibited and mythical animals with lion heads and horse bodies that are mythical Iranian creatures are also seen around the carpet.
Pazyryk was where it all started.