An important archaeological discovery was made in 1947. In the process of excavating the tomb of a Shiite chief in the Pazyryk Valley of the Altai mountains in Siberia, a beautiful wool rug was discovered that was knotted and thickly decorated . It had been encased in a block of ice, and was thus perfectly preserved. Datable to the 5th. century B.C, the Pazyryk rug is the oldest known ancient rug