NARRATOR: Here there will be rotating examples of so-called “Turkman” carpets. They represent a distinctly non-courtly tradition.

WALTER DENNY: Turkman carpets… tend to be reasonably small, because they were woven and owned by people who had to pack up and travel and follow their flocks from pasture to pasture in the course of a nomadic existence. …The overwhelming color of Turkman carpets is taken from the root of the madder plant. And so reds from fire engine red, to dark reddish brown, to mahogany… are characteristic of Turkman carpets. Turkman carpets were woven for use on the floors of their large… tents that we call "yurts" in English, but they were also destined to serve a multitude of practical purposes. The large oblong bags known as "chuval" were used to hold basic items… such as clothing, and were attached to the walls of tents. Smaller bags held cooking utensils. Square bags held baked bread…Other carpets….were woven as trappings for wedding camels… The world of Turkman weaving that has come down to us is largely from the 18th and 19th centuries… But the tradition from which they come is one of the oldest of carpet-weaving traditions. Indeed, in the eyes of some scholars, it is the origin of the carpet-weaving technique.