Late 20th Century Kurdish Saddle Back Traveling Rug With 2 Compartments

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Description

I bought this vintage saddle bag/rug while I visited Baghdad, Iraq in the early 1980's (it could be made in … Read more I bought this vintage saddle bag/rug while I visited Baghdad, Iraq in the early 1980's (it could be made in the early 1900's) I used to collect items that I have seen while I was growing up and the items I collected somehow kept the connection to my heritage.
Saddlebags were used to transfer food or items as they used to trade moving from place to place by horses or donkeys.
We used to visit north of Iraq and I was fascinated by the primitive way the people transported goods and traveled on their donkeys and using those kinds of saddle backs.
The face of the saddle bag is a wool hand knitted rug connected from three sides with the back of it and the middle side was open with holes and threads to be closed while traveling to protect the goods from falling.
The colors the people used were depending on what was available from paints and material.

When I bought this item there was no paper work or receipts with it but the owner was from Kurdistan (inhabited mainly by Kurds) and he said it was originally from that area, that region spans parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria and Armenia. See less