What Is The Oldest Surviving Carpet Tile Ever?

Arguably the most essential part of the interior design of a home, commercial or business location is one that is seldom focused on.

The carpet is often used to create continuity between different rooms and different aesthetic styles, as well as provide insulation and a comfortable, hard-wearing surface for people to travel on. Carpet tiles even make this surface easy to replace over time.

Carpets are far from a new invention, of course, and it has been used to keep homes comfortable and warm for thousands of years.

However, the oldest surviving carpet, despite its phenomenal age, has survived remarkably well and retained much of its vibrant red hue, in part due to the nature of its construction but also due to circumstances.

Trapped Under Ice

Believed to be over 2500 years old, the Pazyryk Carpet was one of many discoveries found in burial sites near the Pazyryk Valley, on the border between Russia, China and Kazakhstan.

Believed to be linked to the Scythians, a kingdom from the sixth to the third century BC that centred around the Crimea and were believed to be a critical part of the early trading route known as the Silk Road due to their skill at horse-riding, the tombs were unusually well-preserved due to the freezing temperatures.

This meant that a lot of objects that would otherwise have disintegrated over time have been remarkably well preserved, most notably including a carpet trapped in a block of ice, one that has led to considerable discussion due to potentially being the oldest carpet in existence.

Ironically enough, it managed to survive to the modern age precisely because it was left exposed; originally belonging to a nobleman in the Altai mountains who took it with him to his grave, the effects of freezing temperatures shielded it from the passage of time.

Allegedly, the reason for this is that at some point the tomb was looted except for the carpet, which was left exposed to the Siberian tundra for thousands of years.

How it survived is one part of the mystery, but the bigger debate is where the carpet originated from; the Scythians were primarily known for metalwork rather than textiles, and the materials used as well as the design give conflicting clues as to its original maker.

It is a particularly elaborate carpet with an approximate knot density of 360,000 per square metre, which suggests the ornate carpet was handmade by particularly skilled masters of their craft.

It is believed to be from Ancient Armenia because of the use of the natural red dye cochineal, made from an insect indigenous to Armenia, as well as its use of a double-knot technique known to be in use by Armenian carpet makers.

Contemporary historians such as Herodotus also noted that Armenian weavers were known for carpets with colours that did not fade.

However, there are other historians who claim that the carpet might be Persian in origin, due to designs that look remarkably similar in style to sculptures found in Persepolis, now part of modern-day Iran.

Regardless of the origin, the Pazyryk Carpet is striking in its vibrancy and highlights the power and importance that carpets have had for thousands of years.