Sources of the Armenian Carpet

​The geographical position of the Armenian Highland, its natural-climatic conditions, mineral, animal and plant, also raw material resources, as well as economy and everyday requirements have granted large opportunities for the development of weaving and carpet-making.  The remains of the material culture, as well as written sources, testify to this fact.
 
Armenian textile goes back thousands of years.  Besides woven pieces, early carpet-weaving tools and comb-like beaters of bone called ktutich (2nd-1st millennia BC), spindle heads (Shirakavan, Argishtikhinili), needles (Shirakavan, Noyemberian), pottery fragments with textile prints, weaver’s loom and other Bronze Age tools (Shirakavan, Lchashen, Argishtikhinili), and a ball of wool (Karmir Blour) were excavated. 

​Ornamented fragments of a karpet flat weave found in Shirak (Harich) refer to the 12th-11th centuries BC.  Noteworthy are remains of a fabric found from a burial mound in Artik, the ornamented edges of which are reminiscent of a jejim flat weave.  Balls of yarn, fragments of fabric made of wool and flax, found during the excavations of the Urartian fortress of Teishebaini and dating from the 7th century BC, are also known. 

The rhombs with concave sides depicted in the Erebuni frescoes are reminiscent of textiles. Their centres show the motif called “ornament of the world”, which later became widespread in the Armenian miniature painting.  A. Mnatsakanian, an expert of ornamental art, linked this motif to the central ornaments of the carpet “Pazyryk”.  Of special interest are patterns on textile pieces: hooked cruciform, S-shaped and curved lines.  Such ornamental forms are traditionally recurrent in the Armenian applied arts.


Svetlana Poghosian