‘Oldest carpet in world belongs to Turks’

SAMSUN

DHA Photo

The oldest carpet in the world, which was removed from a grave at the foot of the Altai Mountains in 1949, belongs to Turkish tribes, a study on the motifs and engravings on it has found.

İbrahim Tellioğlu, a historian from Ondokuz Mayıs University, said that the visuals, figures and motifs used on the carpet are a product of Turkish culture.

“The motifs such as animal figures, cavalry visuals, the way the horse’s tail is tied and the Hun rose show that this carpet belongs to the Turks in terms of art history,” Tellioğlu said.

Stating that the belonging of the carpet is associated with Indo-Europeans, Tellioğlu emphasized that these motifs have been used all over the Turkish world for thousands of years and that there are no questions on the culture group of the carpet.

The carpet, exhibited at the Hermitage Museum in Russia’s St. Petersburg, thought to date back to about 2,500 years ago, was found by archeologist Sergei Rudenko in a chamber tomb in Siberia, also called the “Pazyryk burials.”

“A mummified corpse with a golden dress was found 2,500 years ago in these burials. It is understood that the civilization that made this dress was Turks from the surrounding items and an inscription in a silver bowl,” he noted.