Bought a carpet runner today at Praça Benedito Calixto from the expert Oswaldo. It’s a beautiful floral pattern featuring the traditional dark blue indigo and dark red madder, with geometrical elements of the pattern in natural wool of a creamy white, the floral decoration with pink, brown and green detail, and the pattern symmetrical around a central medallion.

One half of Hamadan carpet runner, 10 feet by 2 feet 6

Traditionally a centre of carpet trading for what is made in the surrounding villages, the finer carpets are named for their villages while more everyday items are known by the name of the city, Hamadan. These beautiful objects are described as “good utility carpets”. See

http://www.carpetencyclopedia.com/pages/Styles_and_origin/Persian_carpets/Hamadan-189.html

When you learn that Hamadan has been known for its carpets for a very long time, and you begin to realise just how long ago that could be – it’s on the Silk Road, it’s mentioned as Ekbatana in the Book of Ezra in the Old Testament, as well as by classical Greek historian Heordotus, and indeed may be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world – your perspective on what’s under your feet, and on the people who made and make these objects becomes dizzyingly extended. Take a step back from the generic ‘Persian carpet’ and appreciate it in its historical context, just as beautiful as its impact in the here and now.