&quot;The Pazyryk rug is the oldest surviving example of a complete rug discovered so far. It was probably produced in the 5th century BC by the nomadic Scythian people and was discovered by the Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko in a Scythian burial mound in the late 1940s&quot;.    http://thetextileblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/pazyryk-rug.html