2 x 3 Antique Two Grey Hills Navajo Rug 78638

78638 Antique Two Grey Hills Navajo Rug, 02'06 x 03'05.

Bathed in the sacred earth-tones of Dinetah, this handwoven wool antique Two Grey Hills Navajo rug embodies a refined harmony between tradition, geometry, and natural beauty. The tightly rendered stepped diamonds radiate from a solemn central axis, echoing the inner structure of mountains and the spiritual symmetry of the cosmos. Each serrated form emerges with deliberate rhythm, a visual drumbeat tracing the weaver’s memory—knowledge handed down through generations, shaped by sandstone cliffs and desert winds. Woven circa 1920's, this textile is a masterful example of early Two Grey Hills artistry, where precision meets poetry and restraint reveals power.

What distinguishes this rug is its complete allegiance to natural wool—the undyed hues of beige, tan, gray, taupe, camel, brown, and deep black, all sheared from sheep raised in the high desert. The absence of aniline dyes connects it to an earlier philosophy of weaving, one rooted not only in aesthetics but in ecological and spiritual continuity. The tonal shifts within each color are subtle but deliberate, allowing the eye to flow across the surface in waves of organic light and shadow. These transitions evoke the striations of canyon walls at dusk, or the shifting forms of cloud and mesa on the open horizon.

Framed by a border of bold triangular devices, this composition maintains a commanding sense of containment while suggesting energetic expansion. The jagged edge motifs are symbolic of mountains, protection, and power—each triangle pointing inward like sentinels guarding sacred space. The twin diamond medallions, flanking the axis of symmetry, pulse with inner luminosity. They may be read as portals, eyes, or spirit windows—gateways into the mythic space where pattern and path converge. The serrated elements within the field convey both movement and protection, evoking the zigzag of lightning or the sacred geometry of emergence.

To possess a rug such as this is to hold a woven landscape—an artifact shaped not only by wool and loom, but by worldview. It carries within its warp the silence of high desert mornings, the murmur of wool combed by hand, the quiet resolve of a weaver seated at her upright loom with memory as her map. This Two Grey Hills rug is not merely decorative—it is a cartography of tradition, a meditation in fiber, and a rare surviving echo of early 20th-century Dine cultural expression at its most elemental and profound.

• Rendered in variegated shades of tan, taupe, brown, beige and black with other neutral colors.
• Abrash.
• Handwoven wool.
• Made in America.
• Measures: 02'06 x 03'05.
• Date: 1920's. Early 20th Century.