We are all told to look around us, but often that doesn’t mean looking down. But the carpet under your feet is more than just a modern invention – its origins go back thousands of years and its history may just surprise you.
Jim Murphy, owner of Unique Carpet and Floor located in Aberdeen’s Holburn Street, gives us a brief – and unique – history of the carpet.
Around 30,000 years ago, during the middle Paleolithic era (probably around teatime), a hunter returns to his modest cave dwelling. He has not only brought back food, but something that will forever alter the course of human history. New carpets.
Well certainly not carpets as we would call them today, but several animal hides scattered across the hard-stone floor of his home. These primitive coverings would provide a degree of much needed warmth and comfort because let’s face it, winter was surely coming.
For millennia, animal skins would provide clothing shelter and ultimately, the shag pile carpet.
To find anything like carpets as we might recognise them now, we have to leap forward in time by 20,00 years.
Archaeological evidence throughout the Middle East points to the use of sheep and goat fibres to produce some of the earliest woven mats.
The oldest woven carpet still in existence is the Pazhryk carpet. This amazing example of the art is thought to be 2,500 years old and was found frozen within a burial site in Siberia.
Thought to be of either Persian or Armenian in origin, this richly coloured carpet measures 2m x 1.83m and is framed with a border of Griffins. Just like the ones in Harry Potter.
Today we are spoilt by the vast choice of floor coverings that the industry has provided for us. From woven Axminster and Wilton to the latest in bleach resistant carpets.
In recent times environmental issues have guided our industry with the development of flooring and accessories produced from recycled materials.
So remember, that when you make that next flooring purchase you’re not just buying some old carpet but making your own contribution to social history – and the history of carpets.
Unique Carpet and Floor has been part of that history for 10 years and the team can talk you through any questions you might have when it comes to carpets, rugs and flooring. They can even turn a piece of carpet into a rug or runner using their in-shop carpet binding equipment.
Although they are currently closed due to the lockdown, Jim can be contacted for advice and information.
Visit the Unique Carpet and Floor website for contact information, or to get inspiration for your next carpet, rug or flooring. And make sure to follow the shop on Facebook for all the latest news, including when it will reopen following lockdown.
