Oriental Rugs - Northwest Asian Weaving

Caucasian Weaving  Caucasian rugs come from the region northwest of Iran and south of Russia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, an area of approximately 160,000 square miles. This is also the area believed to be responsible for the production of some of the world's first pile rugs. Caucasian rugs mirror the complex ethnography of their creators. Until the Russian conquests of the late 18th and 19th centuries, the area had been an ethnic, cultural, and religious melting pot and a ceaseless battleground for over 800 hundred years. Surrounding civilizations were constantly seeking to make the Caucasus their own, either for political or religious reasons. Caucasian rugs all bear a striking similarity to one another and resemble the Turkoman rugs and those made by the nomads living in southeast Turkey.

The main characteristics that distinguish Caucasian rugs from Persian rugs are their color schemes of bright shades of red, rust, or burgundy, and their border and medallion motifs. Caucasian rugs tend to have a lot of octagonal motifs with bold geometric elements and narrow borders.

Today, all the countries in this area combined do not produce even half as many rugs as Iran does. But because of their scarcity, carpets from these countries are considered to be quite valuable.

Far Eastern Weaving 
Some of the most distinct rugs in the world are those made in the Tarim Basin located in the far eastern regions of Asia. Countries in this area include China, Mongolia, Tibet, East Turkmenistan, Nepal, and many countries once part of the Soviet Union, including Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan.

The Tarim Basin is a very old area, often times referred to as Eurasia the precise half-way point between the Far East, and western Europe. Some of the oldest rug fragments ever discovered have been unearthed in the Tarim Basin. Many believe that the first people to ever weave pile rugs were in fact those nomads living in the area of present day Mongolia.