N.º 31 2019 pp. 17-30

Article
Reconsidering dragon carpet origins

Gerald Pollio

Fordham University, London Study Centre, 2 Eyre St Hill, London EC1R 5ET, United Kingdom

gpollio@aol.com

Abstract

Armenians have increasingly been eliminated from the weaving history of the Caucasus. Given that Armenians have lived there for millennia and are its only inhabitants attested in both ancient and medieval sources as having been weavers and dyers, it is surely curious they would have abandoned a craft for which they were renowned. Many regional rugs were originally attributed to Armenian weavers, but from the second quarter of the 20th century onwards were reclassified as being either of Turkish (Azeri) or Persian origin. This article reconsiders the available evidence and the way it has been interpreted to arrive at a balanced assessment of Armenians' contribution to the production of Dragon carpets, the region's earliest surviving design. Its findings challenge many of the assumptions upon which these conclusions were based, and thus revives the possibility the attributions of earlier authors were more accurate than those of their successors.

Keywords

Design origins
Dragon carpets
Caucasus
Armenians
Historiography

Language

English

DOI

10.14568/cp2018012

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Citation

History

Received: 2018-3-22
Revised: 2018-10-15
Accepted: 2018-10-19
Online: 2018-12-3
Publication: 2019-4-30

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Stable url: https://doi.org/10.14568/cp2018012