The Pazyryk carpet, Hermitage Museum

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The Pazyryk Carpet, the oldest surviving pile carpet in the world, excavated from a frozen Scythian-era kurgan (Barrow No. 5, Pazyryk) in 1949 and now in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The single most important object in carpet history; its exact origin (Persian, Central Asian, or Armenian) remains debated.