80 Year Caucasus Rug

??????Caucasus is located between the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and lakes Van and Urmia. The northern tier of this mountainous place is Russia; the southwest is Turkey and Iran to the southeast. The inhabitants have produced rugs for centuries during a period of constant ebb and flow of invaders and combatants. The Armenians are the best-known inhabitants but the Georgians also live here, Christian, Moslem, and heathen are all of the area. There are the remnants of over a hundred tribes and three hundred recorded dialects. Perhaps the one great attraction of the Caucasian rug is color. Design can always be duplicated but color is the soul of the rug, nothing but natural dyes are used in the making. All of the products of manufacture are local, rugged, angular, vivid, yet charming. The contruction of rugs from Caucasus can be outlined as follows: The warp is usually in shades; of brown, natural or may be dyed. The weft is usually two threads after each row of knots. The Kazaks will employ red weft and use three or' four at times; this usually accompanies high pile construction. The woof or pile is the result of knotting, is invariably wool. The finer the wool the finer the knot. Shirvan and Kuba are fine-knotted and low pile. Medium pile is from the Talish and Daghestan area. High-pile rugs are typically found in the Kazak, Karabagh, and Moghan regions. The selvedge and fringe ends need more study, for in many cases, the learned rug person can, decipher the rug from the edges. Suffice to say they differ greatly.