Perishable: Hide Object AMNH 29.0/8638

Hide Object, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #8638. Morris FS 2129 . Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Cedar bark and 3-strand braid wrapped with hide. Image: AMNH 29.0/8638A: bark and braid wrapped with hide. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 78, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 78 at the time of excavation is as follows. “About three-fourths of a cord of cedar splints such as were used in the construction of ceilings had been left in Room 78, covering the entire area of the chamber, but deepest against the north wall. …. One pine log, extending north and south, had supported the ceiling. The small poles were of cottonwood. This ceiling had remained intact until after the ruin was reduced to a mound. Finally,….the log rotted off next to the north wall, and permitted that end of the ceiling to settle down upon the mass of splints…. Where the timber entered the south wall it broke, but did not fall. An extensive deposit of vegetable refuse had been thrown into the room above Room 78. When the ceiling settled, much of this ran through and around it, and, together with dust and sand….eventually completed the filling of the room except for a cavity, triangular in cross-section, across the south side. … [Explanation of artifacts]….Between the refuse and the surface of the mound were elements of the second ceiling; partially charred wood and fire-hardened adobe. Numerous peeled willows and their impressions in adobe clods indicated that in the second ceiling there had been an ornamental finish of these slender sticks closely placed on top of the layer of small poles. Ventilators are present in the ends of the north walls.” (Morris 1928: 326-327) Reference: Earl Morris, 1928, Notes on Excavations in the Aztec Ruin, Volume XXVI, Part V, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.