HAND LOOMED

The first carpets of note were woven by nomads. The thick carpets were easy to transport and were placed over the sand floor of tent dwellings. Early looms were similarly easy to transport. Two forked branches were joined by a crosspiece holding the suspended warp, and a wooden bar was used to flatten binding weft threads, while the loose warp ends formed the carpet's pile. The Pazyryk carpet has been documented as the earliest hand loom carpet, dating back from 500 B.C. and discovered in a tomb located in the Alti Mountains in Central Asia.