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The craze for Persia's ancient past went viral in the 1920s as numerous archaeological excavations yielded more buried treasures. As Iran's National Museum was being set up, carpets were being woven depicting such ceramic and metalware items from millennia past and they catered to the fashionable homes of the time.

This is easily the most impressive variant of the Zirkhaki school of 'archaeological' carpets I have seen. Woven in Tabriz in the late Qajar and early Pahlavi years when a craze of Persia's pre-Islamic past took hold, it shows various excavated metalwork and ceramic treasures. Numerous European expeditions were busy digging up artifacts and objects and this lit up a fascination amongst wealthy locals that ultimately ended with the establishment of the National Museum of Iran in 1937 under the leadership of Andre Godard and the watchful eye of Reza Shah.

The scale of this chef d’oeuvre is imposing and palatial. I have not seen any other longer than 4 meters. There is no symmetry whatsoever and no repeats at all throughout the vast ivory field. We see layers of symbolism and secret characters scattered in many corners of the design. Most intriguingly, the apex of the field contains a ceramic bowl depicting the Virgin Mary holding the Infant Christ, above which is a prayer rug with mihrab arching overhead the Virgin & Child.