The marks were not decorative. A lozenge placed in the border of a domestic textile was a protective act. The broken comb was deliberate incompleteness, because perfection invites envy, and the women who wove these objects understood that envy has weight.
Readings are grounded in scholarship. Contested meanings are noted.The diamond. The most common shape in Amazigh (Berber) weaving, and the one you will hear the most stories about.
A comb or rake form, deliberately interrupted. The clearest example of a real habit in Amazigh weaving — and a much-repeated theory about why.
A cross built from steps rather than smooth lines — partly a choice, and partly what the loom will allow.
An allover field of diamonds touching corner to corner, with no empty ground. As much a feat of tension control as a pattern.
A composition of horizontal bands — the plainest thing a flatweave can do, and one of the hardest to do well.
A concentric oval or pointed ellipse, usually read as an eye. One of the most confidently interpreted, and least verifiable, motifs.
A deliberate imbalance in an otherwise regular rug. Real, intentional, and routinely over-explained.
The frame at the edge of a rug. Often more than decoration, sometimes exactly decoration.