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The origins of the
hand woven oriental pile rug in existence dates from the fourth century
BC. This hand woven oriental rug known internationaly as the Pazyrk Rug,
this oriental rug was discovered in 1949 frozen inside a burial mound in
Siberia.
Many oriental rug experts believed the Pazyrk rug was woven in the
Caucasus where the countries of present day Turkey, Iran, armenia and
Azerbaijan. Other oriental rug experts note the similarity
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The weaves
Middle Eastern nomads and
villagers have used a
variety of techniques to create stunning textile art. The most common
structures are shown below.
Slit tapestry
this
is the technique used most frequently for the flat woven rugs and hangings
called kilims.
Slit tapestry is also used
for bags, pictorial tapestries, and other articles. The fabrics are
usually weft-faced, meaning that the
warp is covered completely; the surface is ribbed in a vertical
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The knotted
pile
structures are, of course,
used for the wide range of plush pile carpets popularly known as Oriental
rugs. But tribal weavers have also knotted tent bags and saddlebags,
saddle covers, animal trappings, cushions, door hangings, tent girths and
other articles. Sometimes knotted pile
has been combined with one or more of the flatweaves.
To form the pile, small segments of
colored yarn are attached firmly to pairs of warps. The Asian or North
African weaver works with the loose end of a continuous yarn,
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Knot counts
are one gauge of quality in
some large workshop carpets, but with antique rugs there is little
correlation between a rug's coarseness and its value as textile art. Other
qualities are more important: the artistry, craftsmanship, rarity, wool
quality, and the weaving's importance as an historic or ethnographic
object.
If you wish to identify the knots in your
rug, you must first determine which end of the rug was at the top when it
was woven. The fringe yarns on the ends are the warp. Running lengthwise
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The Turks
have produced the largest kilims, usually in two narrow pieces joined, as
well as small ones and a multitude of prayer kilims.
As a prayer rug, which is carried about with
the worshiper, the light and extremely flexible kilim offers obvious
advantages. In Turkish kilims, cotton is often used for the white areas,
and small details may be brocaded.
The kilims
of the southern Balkans began as
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