WEST TURKMENISTAN, CENTRAL ASIA, SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

Turkmen designs were woven from memory by the women of the tribes and the final product usually attested to the wealth of the family. The field of this carpet is decorated with forty-eight octagonal tauk nuska güls arranged in four columns, most of the double-headed horned animals within the guls face inwards. These alternate with smaller secondary cruciform motifs with hooked terminals known as charkh palak. The former, in particular, are typical of the nomadic Yomut tribe whose pasturage covered a broad band between the Caspian and Aral Seas. It is unusual to find both long original kilim ends in tact on the present carpet.