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𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐤 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐁𝐲𝐳𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐛𝐨

I promised you only the best of everything as well as the most exclusive rugs in the world. Today we go back 1,500 years to the year 531 when Justinian the Law Giver was Emperor of the Romans. The builder of Hagia Sophia. They weren’t known as Byzantines yet but were already Christian.

In a remote corner of Jordan lies Mount Nébo where the Prophet Moses (Musa/Moshe/Moïse) was allegedly buried. A number of churches and monasteries were built there for the faithful to worship and pray.

There, inside a 6th century baptistery, archaeologists discovered a “floor painting” of very surprising motifs: exotic wild beasts 🦓 🦁 🐆 🦌 and pastoral scenes in ancient costume.

There also was an imposing, very lengthy inscription in Ancient Greek which said:

By the divine grace, under our most God-loving father and shepherd Elias the bishop, the holy diaconicum of God was rebuilt and adorned with the holy baptismal font of rebirth and the most graceful cup, through the effort of Elias the hegumen and priest, under the consulate of Flavius Lampadius and Flavius Orestes the most illustrious, the month of August, 9th indiction, the year 425 of the province. For the salvation of Muselius the scholastic and his wife Sergo. For the salvation of Philadelphus the scholastic and Gothus the scholastic and of all those who belong to them. Amen o Lord!

Hundreds of years later, before l was born, this historic Byzantine art was faithfully preserved on a pair of silk carpets. Most likely woven by special commission in Egypt in the mid 20th century.