One of the most remarkable finds was the Pazyryk Carpet. To our knowledge, it is the oldest piled rug still in existence, and is housed at Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. The museum’s website description of this antique rug is as follows: “Its decoration is rich and varied: the central field is occupied by 24 cross-shaped figures, each of which consists of four stylized lotus buds. This composition is framed by a border of griffins, followed by a border of twenty-four fallow deer. The widest border contains representations of workhorses and men.” What the website does not mention is the ambiguity of the carpet’s origin. The Pazyryk Valley was located between active trade routes spanning the ancient world, with China to the east and Central Asia to the southwest. One of the mummies discovered–called the Siberian Ice Maiden–was clothed in a wild silk tunic that likely originated in India. Some of the figurines were gilded, and gold is not native to the area. The Pazyryk Carpet most likely came from Central Asia, though it is really a tossup between Persia or Armenia. Both nations have traditions of carpet weaving spanning thousands of years, and the horses represented on the rug are nearly identical to horsemen on a frieze in the ancient Persian city of Persepolis. The possibility that the rug was produced by the Pazyryks is extremely slim, because the sophistication and elegance of the design is indicative of a settled and cosmopolitan civilization unlike the nomadic Pazyryks.
