Carpet Fit Wales Carpet History Facts!
The history of the carpet and the origin of the red carpet are both fascinating and interesting parts of culture. They are stories that are more important to world history than you may think. We’d like to share just a snippet of that rich carpet history for you today.
The earliest surviving pile carpet is the “Pazyryk carpet” (as pictured), which dates from the 5th – 4th century BC. It was excavated by Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko in 1949 from a Pazyryk burial mound in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. This richly coloured carpet is 200 x 183 cm (6’6″ x 6’0″). The exact origin of this unique carpet is unknown.
Knotted pile carpet weaving technology probably came to Britain in the early 16th century with Flemish Calvinists fleeing religious persecution. Because many of these weavers, during the 16th and 17th century, settled in South-eastern England, and mostly in Norwich, the carpets are sometimes referred to as “Norwich carpets”.
A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events. The earliest known use of the red carpet comes from the classic Greek play Agamemnon. In the play, Agamemnon himself is welcomed home by his wife to a grand reception with a deep red and purple carpet, the colour of the gods. He is an arrogant character and his wife Clytemnestra wants to show this by having him literally walk all over the gods. Eventually he does but only after protesting that a red carpet is only worthy of a god.