• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to categorize the types of design composition and analyse the characteristics of patterns expressed in persian carpets. For this study, 188 works of Persian carpets were selected out in the book "Carpet & Rug" and contents in the internet sites of www. carpetwordwide.net/, www.jafarnet.com/. The types of design composition expressed in Persian carpets were classified into the following categories. 1) Medallion design composition 2) Mihrab design composition 3) All over design composition 4) Vase design composition 5) Garden design composition 6) Moharamat design composition 7) Painting design composition 8) Tree of Life design composition 9) Plant Pattern design composition 10) Mosaic pattern design composition. Patterns expressed in Persian carpets were Mosk pattern, Tree of life pattern, Lotus pattern being related to their religion and Hunting picture patterns related to their real life. In particular, various patterns of beautiful flowers, plants, trees, animals such as birds, insects and stream, beauriful landscapes were expressed in Persian carpets.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.153-178
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• 2022

This study analyzes the traces of East-West cultural exchange focusing on the palmette pattern expressed on Sassanid Persian and Silla Korean carpets. The results of the study are as follows. The palmette, which originated in ancient Egypt, is an imaginary flower made up of the transformation of a lotus, which combined with the Mesopotamian quadrant (四分法) and expanded to a four-leaf palmette and further to an eight-leaf palmette by applying the octant (八分法). The palmette, which was brought to Assyria, Achaemenid Persia, Parthia, Greece, and Rome, can be seen lavishly decorated with plant motifs characteristic of the region. Sassanid Persia inherited the tradition of the palmette pattern, which applied the quadrant and octant seen in several previous dynasties. On the one hand, it has evolved more splendidly by combining the twenty or twenty-one-leaf palmette and the traditional pearl-rounded pattern decoration of Sassanid Persia. These Sassanid Persian palmette patterns can be found through the palmette patterns depicted on the ceilings of the Dunhuang Grottoes located on the Silk Road. The palmette pattern of the Dunhuang Grottoes was expressed in the form of a fusion of Persian Zoroastrianism, Indian Buddhism, and indigenous religions. In the Tang Dynasty, it shows the typical palmette pattern of four and eight leaves in the medallion composition, which were mainly seen in Persian palmettes. The palmette pattern handed down to Silla can be found on a Silla carpet, estimated to be from around the 8th century, in the collection of Shoso-in (正倉院), Japan. The Silla carpet shows a unique Silla style using motifs such as peonies and young monks, which were popular in Silla while following the overall design of the Persian medallion.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.109-132
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• 2022

Two of the main elements of Persian tangible heritage are rugs and gardens, which have evolved together from the dawn of Iranian history. Emerging from the same system of thought and geographical location, together they represent the Persians' world views, desires, dreams, and design paradigms. In this study, the Persian Garden's patterns, elements, typology, and meanings are introduced and compared with the same aspects of Persian rugs. This paper uses a qualitative comparative methodology to analyze rugs' designs and patterns in relation to Persian Gardens' design principles. Data is collected primarily through library study and observation. The author uses two categories for comparison: meanings and forms. First, the author identifies underlying meanings common to the two art forms and then introduces form, function, and general principal patterns into the analysis. There is a type of rug pattern, known as Chahar-Bagh (literally, "four gardens"), that mirrors a garden design, down to the details, which is the focus of this paper. Additionally, other representations of Persian Gardens in rug design, such as Shekargah ("hunting pattern"), are discussed, as are other rug patterns with fewer elements borrowed from garden design. The paper also considers several motifs that represent flora common in gardening on the Iranian plateau, some of which have symbolic meanings dating to the Zoroastrian era. By comparing these two mediums of art (garden and rug) in the context of Persian history and geography, it becomes clear that the Persian rug design, in its roots, is an attempt to bring a garden into interior space. The study shows that the forms, patterns, and meanings reflected in Persian rugs render the study of their designs incomplete without considering the history of gardens.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.139-145
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• 2005

The paper reports the physical and mechanical properties of hand-woven carpets, which have been put under static force. Two groups of wool fibres, from two parts of Iran, were prepared to spin pile yams for the carpets. Each group of the fibres included both conventional and tanned wool. Then two yam counts, $N_m$ = 4/2 and 6/2, were spun for two different knot densities. After weaving the carpets, they were put under static force and their thickness variations were measured and plotted against time, in logarithm scale. The resiliency of the carpets piles after eliminating the static force, were measured and plotted against time, in logarithm scale, too. The results were compared to each other and analysed with respect to parameters such as the type and quality of the wool fibres as well as knot density of the carpets.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-38
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• 2022

Many knotted carpets from western China and Central Asia from 700 BCE to 700 CE demonstrate strong resemblances to the Assyrian-Persian stone reliefs and Hellenistic-Romanmosaics. Egypt reveals the earliest samples in plain linen fiber and carpets with colorful designs in the mural paintings. The Egyptian wall decoration in faience shows the motifs of waterlily in two variations in the design, both of which appear in the Assyrian floor thresholds designs. The same waterlily or four-petal design in the Egyptian and Assyrian stonework also appear in the Pazyryk knotted carpet in the same manner. The Assyrian thresholds show a composition with a central area and borders in a square or rectangular overall design, which again parallels the Pazyryk carpet. The ideas of composition and motifs commonly seen in the Hellenistic and Roman mosaics appear in the carpets of Central Asia and western China. The similarities between the stone mosaic works and carpets demonstrate clearly that the remote places and peoples in ancient times learned from, and exchanged with, each other the ideas and artistic styles, and integrated to create some local artistic traditions, thanks to the roles the easy-to-carry textiles played throughout the Silk Road. The carpets played their roles: as practical material for daily use, and as carrier of cultural information through their designs.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-152
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• 2022

Both in popular perception and specialized literature, the Achaemenid Empire, for over two centuries the most important player from the Aegean to the Indus, is rarely evoked in correlation with the complex of socio-cultural dynamics which shaped the spaces of what has become known as the Silk Road(s). Building on the case study of the Pazyryk carpet on the one hand (King 2021, 353-361, Linduff and Rubinson 2021, 88-97), and of the spread of an artistic motive such as the quatrefoil on the other (Kim 2021), this paper explores the rich and complex nature of the commercial networks that flourished across Central Asia under the aegis of Achaemenid Great Kings. Both archaeological and literary evidence shall be discussed (especially the Aramaic Documents from Ancient Bactria: Naveh and Shaked 2012, and now King 2021, 315-320). If taken together and read against the grain, such material is significant for the following reasons. First, it suggests the existence - and the scale - of commercial activities directly fostered or indirectly promoted by the imperial administration in Central Asia, an area of crucial importance within the Achaemenid domains, but for which our evidence is rather scanty and difficult to assess. Second, it shows how the Achaemenid "Imperial Paradigm" (Henkelman 2017) affected the social and economic landscape of Central Asia even after the demise of the Empire itself, thus considerably shaping the world of the Silk Road(s) a century before the Ancient Sogdian Letters (de la Vaissière 2005, 43-70) or Zhāng Quiān's famous report.