Although no one
knows presicely when and where the technique of weaving first started,
There is no doubt that the weaving art, in general, started in Central
Asia. A popular explosion coused the inhabitants of that area to migrate
to the western parts of Asia in order to find more presperous land. These
migrating tribes were caled yoruks or nomadic tribes. During their
migrations, these nomads, who were exposed to severe weather conditions,
learned to use goat hair in the making of their tents. Goat hair is longer
and much siffer than sheep's wool. The flatweave technique was used in the
making of nomadic tents.
Just as with a
little girl's braided pony-tail where strants of the shorter and stiffer
hair stick out, the goat hair sticks out of the woven fabric, gets wet,
drops and partially cover the holes in the flatweave, thus making tent
almost waterproof. Later on, these nomadic people felt the need to isolate
themselves from the humidity present in the earthen foolrs of their tents.
They then applied the very same techniques of flatweave to the making of
of floor coverings and called them "Kilims". Since this was the area of
paganism, most flatweave designs reflected stylised depictions of the
worshipped sembols.
Over a period of
time, the art of weaving improved and many items usefull in every day life
were woeven-for example saddle bags for horses and camels that could be
used in the transportation of many types of items. The Yoruks also wove
kilims with goat hair and used them as warm blankets since the fibers were
so long-just as in today's Siirt blankets. It's thought that these early
blanket were woven in imitation of actual animal felts. Kilims were also
woven as room dividers in the tents, as well as for cradles, with the
corners tied to the overhead tent poles so that the cradle could be swung
back and forth to rock the babies to sleep. These many types of woven
products improved over time with additional uses developed on an
evolutionary basis. At first the nomads, who strictly lived in tents,
stacked dried leaves and lay them in the corners of their tents and used
the soft stacks as beds. Under the weight of the sleepers, the beds
rapidly turned into dust and provided little comfort, thus causing
frequent replacement. Then in a further inspiration of using animal pelts
as a model, the nomads started to add pile to the basic flatweaves. These
first pile rugs were very supple, the nomads would simply fold and throw
them on a horse's back to be used as a sleeping bag during their long
voyages.
As we mentioned
before, no one knows exactly when and where the first knotted-pile carpets
were woven; however the oldest "surviving" pile carpets was descovered in
the grave of a Sycthian price in the Pazyryk valley of the Altai mountains.
In Siberia by Russian archeologist (Rudenko) in 1947 and is presently
displayed in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. The carpet was woven with
the Turkish double knot and contains a surprising 347.000 knots per
suquare meter (255 per square inch); it is 3.62 square meters (6 x 6.5
feet) and has been carbon dated to have been from the 5th. century B.C. It
was loaded and subsequently flooded and froze to a wait discovery by
Rudenko. The Pazyryk, or Altai carpet, is rather sophisticated, thereby
showing that it is the product of a long history and tradition of weaving.
