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Lot Essay
While the field of this rug is fragmentary, it is more than made up for by the extraordinary kilim finishes at each end of the rug, which add considerably to our knowledge about early Persian carpets.
The main part of the rug is at best shadowy, but what can be clearly seen is a design that includes curves. It could be floral, it could be an animal, but it is clearly not a geometric pattern such as one finds in the Anatolian tradition. It is executed in a limited number of colours, apparently the same five that appear in the kilim finish, a strong yellow, an indigo blue, an undyed ivory, and two different but related reds. The knots are asymmentric, of unplied Z spun wool; the there are 6 shoots of weft per row of knots, again each of Z spun red wool. What we also have is the size of the complete rug, which makes reconstruction of any fragments of any future rug discovery easier to achieve. We can also see clearly how the whole rug was woven.
It is the band of lions that form the end finish of the rug that are the really extraordinary feature. Lions striding like this have for centuries been a symbol of power, used particularly in Iran and the surrounding region. However we are not normally used to seeing them in colour. The one exception is the tiled facings of the Ishtar gates of Babylon which in their colouring of strong blue and yellow immediately come to mind as a possible comparison. Until the 5th century AD when they were replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria, they were considered as one of the wonders of the ancient world. Their fame then must have been as great as it is now, very possibly greater.
A tapestry panel woven with a band of lions which bear considerable similarities to ours was excavated in the Pazyryk site (Sergei I. Rudenko, Frozen Tombs of Siberia, London, 1970, p.177). There the lions parade on a uniform coloured ground, but the drawing of the contours on the body is similar to that found here, and the pose is almost identical. Both our and the Pazyryk lions are woven in tapestry technique, not just a simple kilim weave. The coloured wefts that form the design are bent to create quite complex curves that are needed by this design. In his analysis of the Pazyryk finds Rudenko concludes that the band of lions was strongly linked to or very possibly originated from the Assyrian civilisation in Iran (op.cit, pp.296-298). Not only does the present carpet share a close similarity in the band of lions, but the colours are also noticeably similar to those of the Pazyryk carpet which was found in the same barrow as the lion tapestry band. This again would support a Persian attribution for the present carpet.
The results of Carbon 14 testing exclude the possibility that this is from the same culture as the Pazyryk rug; they come out considerably too late. But there are many similarities in iconography between Sasanian work in other mediums and those of their antecedents as rulers of Iran. Lions are very frequently depicted in Sasanian silver, and carved in rock reliefs, just as under the Achaemenids. There seems to be no reason to doubt the carbon date result; it shows that what we have here is likely to be the first published Sasanian Persian pile carpet.
A Carbon14 test performed by RCD Oxford, reference RCD-7146, certificate dated 30 July 2009, gaves a 68 probability of a date between AD 420 and AD 540 and a 95 probability of a date between AD 380 and AD600, consistent with the proposed dating of this rug.
The main part of the rug is at best shadowy, but what can be clearly seen is a design that includes curves. It could be floral, it could be an animal, but it is clearly not a geometric pattern such as one finds in the Anatolian tradition. It is executed in a limited number of colours, apparently the same five that appear in the kilim finish, a strong yellow, an indigo blue, an undyed ivory, and two different but related reds. The knots are asymmentric, of unplied Z spun wool; the there are 6 shoots of weft per row of knots, again each of Z spun red wool. What we also have is the size of the complete rug, which makes reconstruction of any fragments of any future rug discovery easier to achieve. We can also see clearly how the whole rug was woven.
It is the band of lions that form the end finish of the rug that are the really extraordinary feature. Lions striding like this have for centuries been a symbol of power, used particularly in Iran and the surrounding region. However we are not normally used to seeing them in colour. The one exception is the tiled facings of the Ishtar gates of Babylon which in their colouring of strong blue and yellow immediately come to mind as a possible comparison. Until the 5th century AD when they were replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria, they were considered as one of the wonders of the ancient world. Their fame then must have been as great as it is now, very possibly greater.
A tapestry panel woven with a band of lions which bear considerable similarities to ours was excavated in the Pazyryk site (Sergei I. Rudenko, Frozen Tombs of Siberia, London, 1970, p.177). There the lions parade on a uniform coloured ground, but the drawing of the contours on the body is similar to that found here, and the pose is almost identical. Both our and the Pazyryk lions are woven in tapestry technique, not just a simple kilim weave. The coloured wefts that form the design are bent to create quite complex curves that are needed by this design. In his analysis of the Pazyryk finds Rudenko concludes that the band of lions was strongly linked to or very possibly originated from the Assyrian civilisation in Iran (op.cit, pp.296-298). Not only does the present carpet share a close similarity in the band of lions, but the colours are also noticeably similar to those of the Pazyryk carpet which was found in the same barrow as the lion tapestry band. This again would support a Persian attribution for the present carpet.
The results of Carbon 14 testing exclude the possibility that this is from the same culture as the Pazyryk rug; they come out considerably too late. But there are many similarities in iconography between Sasanian work in other mediums and those of their antecedents as rulers of Iran. Lions are very frequently depicted in Sasanian silver, and carved in rock reliefs, just as under the Achaemenids. There seems to be no reason to doubt the carbon date result; it shows that what we have here is likely to be the first published Sasanian Persian pile carpet.
A Carbon14 test performed by RCD Oxford, reference RCD-7146, certificate dated 30 July 2009, gaves a 68 probability of a date between AD 420 and AD 540 and a 95 probability of a date between AD 380 and AD600, consistent with the proposed dating of this rug.