The art of carpet weaving has a long history in Turkmenistan and neighboring northern Iran, east of the Caspian Sea, where handmade Turkmen carpets demonstrate some of the most highly advanced weavings among pastoral peoples. Rugs of this scale, woven of pure wool and colored with costly natural dyes, are used chiefly on ceremonial or other special occasions by tribal khans or wealthy urban dwellers. In most main carpets, the design consists of repeating primary and secondary motifs referred to as güls, or medallions, speculated to be badges of tribal identification. Their precise meanings are no longer known but are believed to have had totemic significance, embodying compositions, motifs, and styles that reveal traces of their ancient Oghuz Turk ancestry. This rare early example displays a different kind of pattern with two distinct güls of equal scale—the kepse and the igdir (commonly referred to as the C-gül)—in offset rows that run both horizontally and vertically with half- and quarter-güls at the edges of the main field. Likely borrowing from Persian or Caucasian designs, Turkmen weavers altered the naturalistic originals, over time transforming them into their preferred geometric patterns. Here, the kepse gül has been adapted from a palmette into an abstracted octagonal form, while the C-gül evolved from a serrated sickle-leaf motif. The main design field is bordered with a meandering curled-leaf pattern common to Yomut multi-gül main carpets and enclosed with “S” guard stripes; colorful alems, or borders, on both ends balance the overall design. jkd