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Over 2,000 years ago the first group of Aryans migrated to the Persian heights, an area that was excruciatingly cold during the winters, which required the Aryans to keep themselves warm with materials that insulated their cold floors and homes. Researchers believe that the Aryans originally used only sheep skin to warm their homes - as local sheep herding communities, sheep skin was in abundance. Later on, the Aryans supposedly graduated on to learning how to weave carpets by using the wool from the sheep, which turned out to be a much more economical solution to the cold winters. Carpet weaving was a hit and over the centuries that followed, became more sophisticated and developed in design - from two-dimensional to three dimensional - and color - from natural to synthetic.
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Another theory unveils complementary findings. In 1959, a group of Russian archeologists discovered a carpet frozen in ice in the Pazyryk mountain range in Siberia, Russia and was consequently named the "Pazyryk carpet". But after testing its carbon fibers, it was determined that the carpet was the world's oldest carpet ever discovered, woven approximately 500 years before Christ. More importantly, the design on the carpet, which included the beautiful weavings of a horse, deer and geometric shapes, were done in the very same style as the statues that adorned the royal architecture of Persipolis. The evidence clearly suggested that the carpet was Persian, originating in Iran over 2,500 years ago.
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The Pazyryk carpet is presently on display in the Carpet Museum of Iran in Tehran, but apparently this is not the only place in Iran to learn about the art, history and development of Persian carpets, as it is very much alive today. Sarakadee's group of writers traveled through the many towns and cities of Iran in twenty exciting days only to discover that Persian carpets were easily found anywhere and everywhere, in simple, humble abodes to well-to-do homes all over Iran. Moreover, the families in small villages and towns and the factories in big city dwellings earned a good living weaving the carpets, which are in high demand both in and out of the country, for functional but more increasingly aesthetic needs. The Persian carpet is an export product that has consistently earned Iran high revenue, but more importantly, the Persian carpet has deep connections with the history and lives of all Iranians.
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