This subject would have seemed illegitimate just a few years ago because rug weaving wasn't thought of as a significant Armenian enterprise throughout most of the 20th century. Even today some rug enthusiasts feel that Armenian rugs are only those inscribed with Armenian writing. It has largely been through the work of the Armenian Rug Society and its members that we are now coming to terms with the important role Armenians have played in rug culture and more specifically in Caucasian rug weaving through the ages.

The current category of collectable Armenian rugs is mainly composed of rugs inscribed with Armenian writing and dates. This trend in Armenian rug connoisseurship deflects world attention away from the larger impact Armenian weavers had on Caucasus Mountain weaving and design.

This paper describes a possible mechanism for early Turcoman design evolution and more specifically how a 13th century Turcoman border design evolved into the field design or gull of a later 14th century Turcoman Rug. The borders of all classic Turcoman weavings have been under analyzed versus field decorations, especially tribal gulls. The fragment pictured below, slide #1, is from a 13th century Turcoman fragment at the TIME, Istanbul. The TIME also has a complete similar carpet on exhibition and it is extremely large, at least four times the surface area of traditional Turcoman main carpets.