From Sagdak to Salor Lecture by Jürg Rageth August 13, 2007 Some pictures click on the thumbnail for the full picture. From Sagdak to Salor Jürg Rageth This talk was previously presented at the ICOC 11 in Istanbul. It will draw some new light on the origins of Central Asian (Turkmen) carpet design in general, and on tradition and continuity of Salor carpet design in particular. Using as examples a number of pre 10th century Central Asian textile designs, partly from real Central Asian textiles, partly from textile representations on Central Asian (Sogdian) wall paintings, and comparing them with Salor carpet designs from Central Asia from ca.   1500-1900, a design tradition and continuity over a period of clearly more than 1000 years has become evident. This continuing tradition is elucidated with evidence, which is not only based on art historical   research, but is also supported by results from radiocarbon dating and dye analyses. By approaching historical developments of Turko-Iranian Central Asian design traditions over roughly the past two millennia, this talk also demonstrates a successful pairing of art history and the natural sciences. Jürg Rageth is an independent Oriental carpet and textile researcher, based in Riehen, Switzerland. He has been involved with radiocarbon dating and dye analysis since 1995 and published several articles on this subject.  This talk represents part of his recent work for a forthcoming publication on Turkmen carpets of Central Asia. As head of the Basel rug society “Freunde des Orientteppichs,“ he was the organizer of several carpet and textile symposia, which have been published under his imprint. return to home page