Neo-Tocharian Pashtun Slip Loop Sleeping Rug
Neo-Tocharian Pashtun Slip Loop Sleeping Rug
Pashtun Sleeping RugLate 19th early 20th century AfghanistanWarps: Wool or goat Z2S, white, tan, brown or black. warps inconsistent in diameter.
Wefts: winderplied wool or goat much more consistent than the warps.
Pile Z2S wool and goat (the dark brown is goat).
Ends: Top 10 inches of slitweave skirt hemmed at top. Bottom Top 10 inches of slitweave skirt with warp fringe.
Sides: weft return over 2 sets of 3 heavy Z2S.
Knots: Slip loop pile, 7 knots to the square inch
This is one of 9 known examples in the world. These all apparently were bought in the market in Murkur Afghanistan which is a major market for Pashtun Nomads often called Cutchis. Similar rugs were found in the Tarim Basin Archeological digs. Those were attributed to the Tocharians. After extensive research I have come to the conclusions that the Tocharians are the ancestors of today’s Pashtuns. If we follow the Tocharians through history we see that historians trace then to Gandahara in modern day Pashtunistan (land of the Pashtuns). The Pashtuns spring from nowhere in the place where the Tocharians disappeared and on the basis of this rug I feel there is a high probability that they are descendents of the Tocharians. I suspect that this will be proved on a linguistic basis unless of course we can do it by DNA matching.
