In the fascinating history of Oriental rugs, filled with cultural legacy and artistic significance, there is perhaps no single rug more remarkable than The Pazyryk rug — the oldest known piled rug, which was created by master weavers over 2,500 years ago. The rug’s fineness of weave, sophistication of color, and symbolic design are evidence of a culture of tremendous weaving and creative skill. The Pazyryk rug changed the understanding of weaving history, exemplifying a rug-weaving technology going much further back in time than previously estimated.
The story of the Pazyryk rug begins with the ancient Scythians who, from the 9th century BC, began expanding out from central Asia as far as Europe and Egypt. An ethnically diverse Mongol tribal group, they became a dynamic force by domesticating the horse and becoming superb horsemen and archers. They traveled by horse and wagon, lived in stout felt tents, drank horse milk from which they made cheese, and fished and hunted game.
Their excellent horsemanship gave them a great advantage in war; they were said to be fearless, and their women were legendary warriors, known by the Greeks as the famous Amazons. To bury their warriors and royalty, the Scythians built more than a thousand earth and stone burial tombs (called Kurgans), but many were looted in ancient times. It was in 1949, on the steppes of Mongolia at 5,400 ft.
, that a Russian archeologist opened a 2,500-year-old Kurgan belonging to a Scythian prince. The Pazyryk ru.