The Pazyryk rug, the oldest carpet presently known to us, was woven sometime in the 5th century BC, then languished in a tundric deep freeze for over 2500 years. Fortunately, in 1949, Russian scientists discovered it in the grave of a Scythian nobleman entombed within an Iron Age burial mound in the Pazyryk Valley of the Altai Mountains of Siberia. Today, this richly stylistic work of art is housed at St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum. The Pazyryk rug is a visual embodiment of ancient knowledge expressed in symbols.