Armenia is a land of unique culture presented through art. Ancient Armenian carpets are the interpretation of rich history and traditions.
Anyone who visited an Armenian home has probably noticed that rugs are a very important part of house decoration even today.
The history of Armenian rugs dates back to ancient times and the weaving techniques have been passed down within families for generations, resulting in a range of designs and historic examples.
The words “carpet” and “Armenia” take you to Megerian carpet, which has been preserving Armenian weaving culture since 1917.
The museum and shop were established by the family of Megerians and the business was passed to the next generation developing the production of handmade rugs all over the world.
The museum itself amazes with colors of yarns: the brown color made from the walnut shell, the red color from the roots of madder, the only color that is not produced in Armenia is blue which is brought from India.
The first phase of rug weaving is the weaving process using ancient Armenian double knots.
The fixation of the lines is done with a special Armenian tool called “ktut”. The second phase is the brushing and shaving process which helps to remove some additional yarns, which can be a source of dust in the houses.
Here, each process is repeated 4-5 times.
And you know what amazes us more? The stories behind each rug. The most touching story is about the “Shield rug”: during the genocide Armenian mother cut the rug into pieces and gave each piece to her daughters and said if you lost each other you can find and recognize each other by this rug.
After fifty years they met each other in New York.
Considering all the symbols, the history, and technique, there is no surprise that the oldest rug in the world with 2000 years of history “Pazyryk” was proven to have an Armenian origin.