Kazakhs’ whole napless rugs manufactured in the steppe zone of Western Siberia in late 20th century (on preserving craft traditions)

Purpose. Kazakhs’ traditional crafts being a branch of the ethnography of Siberia, the issue of woven rugs manufactured by means of horizontal and vertical loom is a bright example of exploring traditions. Traditional rug weaving using the vertical loom has been described insufficiently yet. The main purpose of the article is a comprehensive description of whole napless rugs manufacturing. We describe characteristics of the manufacturing process of whole napless rugs with traditional patterns and analyze their ornamental decoration, which allows us to highlight specific features of the rugs in question. Results. We introduce new material on the Kazakh rug weaving in the region with the help of new archival data. The vertical loom, by means of which such rugs were manufactured, consisted of a large frame and a number of quills which look like flat plates with coiled filaments on them. The process of rug weaving included several stages. Preliminary preparation consisted of the following steps: preparing yarn from sheep’s wool, producing filaments, coloring these filaments and winding thread on quills. The second stage was connected with hiring workers. Young girls who wanted to master skills of weaving were engaged into manufacturing rugs. The most time-consuming step was the process of manufacturing the rug. It took about a month of work. A special issue was workers’ remuneration. The girls were rewarded with some tissue for them to make a dress. We also analyzed the most typical features and patterns used for decorating rugs, which were popular in this ethnic group. The features included ornamental decoration, colors and trim edges with a fringe. A structural feature of woven rugs was distinction between the central part and the border. The most commonly used patterns of whole napless rugs included complex geometric motifs. Conclusion. Among other types of traditional rug weaving, the Kazakhs living in Siberia used to manufacture special napless rugs. The issue of preserving traditions associated with rug manufacturing is topical nowadays. The collected material has allowed us to correlate ornaments of whole napless rugs manufactured by Siberian Kazakhs with the traditional style of ornamentation: ornaments had different geometric shapes, they were stepwise and recurrent, different patterns were allocated in different areas, the background was an integral part of the ornament. However, the social functions of Kazakhs’ rug weaving are vanishing. We fix termination of the tradition of making whole napless rugs among the Kazakh of the steppe zone of Western Siberia.