Draft:Armenian Handmade Carpet

Carpet is made mainly with wool, in most cases with hair, cotton, sometimes with silk, linen, gold threads or their mixtures. For protection from the cold and for decorative purposes, they are spread on the floor, couch, stairs and corridors, hung on the wall, and used as a curtain, tent, horse saddle cover. Rugs, bedspreads, sacks, etc. are made from the fabric of the carpet. In ancient times, carpet was used to decorate the balcony on holidays.

Carpets are made on the loom. The monochromatic threads stretched vertically are covered with colored middle threads running horizontally, with which the patterns and the complete composition are created.

The carpet were made by people living in the territory of Armenia as early as AD, as evidenced by a piece of carpet fabric found in the Bronze Age tombs of Artik) . During the excavations of the fortress city of Teyshebain (Red Hill) in Urartu, coils of wool thread and a rag was found.When the rag was compared with modern fabrics, experts confirmed it to be carpet fabric. The excavations of the city of Ani also unearthed fragments of medieval carpets and other carpet fabrics.

Armenia had favorable conditions and materials for the development of carpet making (wool, goat hair, cotton, silk, vegetables, animals, mineral dyes, etc.). As well as major international trade routes passing through the country, connecting the East to the West, which contributed to the production and export of carpets.

In Armenian bibliography, the word carpet has been used since the 5th century, and in the 10th-13th centuries, thanks to international trade, it spread in Europe (French: carpette, English: carpet) and was used in the sense of carpet. Carpets were made in almost all regions of Armenia. Carpets called Zile, for the city of the same name in the governorship of Sebastia, and snake carpets were especially respected. Through the people who emigrated from Armenia, many carpet motifs, complete compositions and carpet-making methods were spread in Armenian settlements (Lviv, Moldavia, Romania, Poland, etc.). In such places the traditions of Armenian carpet-making continued until the 18th century.

Carpet making, both in Armenia and in many countries of the Far East, was mostly a home craft, which was mainly practiced by women and girls. Less affluent people used carpets with simple patterns or without patterns whereas middle-class residents could afford more complex designs.

There are many different styles of Armenian carpet. These include the mezar, jejim, matkash, two-faced matkash, shulal, straight loop-wrapped, oblique loop-wrapped and fringed carpets, all with unique patterns and texture.

The decorative motifs of Armenian carpets, were complex and diverse, reflecting and depicting the economy of the population (hook, spike, etc.). As well as popular ideas about mythical animals and phenomena, and the aesthetic taste of the population of the specific historical and geographical environment.

Ornamental motifs symbolizing faith and worship were also feature. Including symbols such as religous(totemic, etc.), sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies, silhouetted images of people, animals, plant patterns (tree of life, roses, flowers, etc.) stand out, many of which had spiritual meaning.

There are many references to carpets and rugs in Armenian oral traditions, fairy tales, songs and the epic of David of Sassoon.

On some Armenian carpets imitations of ancient rock paintings have been reproduced. In the past, carpets and items made of caperette fabric were objects of donation and bride's dowry