I'm very happy you raised the subject and I appreciate your work.

I do think, a four knots mistake can be made without the weaver noticing it. The piles still long, don't show a mistake immediately. Your observation it occurs at a certain point in the process, needs some hands on the rugs investigation. At this point I'm still in the Dark Age, not having looked at it properly.

The religious explanation is a very commercially convenient one. I could sell a car without a steering wheel and still be very religious.

The g? you encounter that show an elongated effect, could be the result of warp and weft tension. The elongated ones, are located at the upper part of the rug.

Looking at contemporary commercial design, it's all very neat, well designed smooth, practical etc. You and I could exchange houses, and live on happy. Not a lot adjustments to be made. If science is right, people can exchange each other in coming times, and friends wouldn't notice the difference.

So, in the rugs, I do not think every thing we see are simple mistakes. I'm sure, a lot off old designs, are misinterpreted by us because we don't know the old cultural spirit that supports it. The least we can do is investigate.

Imagine looking at a hometrainer, 500 years from now. It's a stupid thing if we do not know the basic need to exercise the body, if the body is genetically transformed into superman, or the bodies got lost somewhere in time as inconvenient ballast.

Best regards
Vincent