Although history and geography are supposed to deal with reasonably clear and documented information, most rug books are vague and at times even contradictory about the locations of Turkmen tribes. You say that they were nomads, so they had no fixed locations? Right, but even nomads find it difficult to achieve ubiquity. Therefore, I tried to summarize what a highly competent and respected historian wrote about Turkmen and what a handful of serious nineteenth century visitors got directly from the horse’s mouth. The following maps and comments are heavily borrowed from Yuri Bregel’s outstanding Historical Atlas of Central Asia. I merely tried to focus on my favorite Turkmen, simplifying and dividing Bregel’s complex maps until they were compatible with my underperforming synapses.

by Pierre Galafassi

Chemically speaking, wool is keratin, a protein copolymer containing about 17 different amino-acid monomers. The main elements are cystine, leucine, glycine and glutamic acid. Covalent cross-linking of adjacent cystine residues by disulphide bonds is a major factor for the mechanical properties of keratin fibres. The bond fragility to high temperature (over 90-100°C), alkaline pH, reduction or oxidation, must be taken into account in dyeing.