Ceramic: Nava Black-on-white, bowl (fragment), AZRU-00008/4976

Nava Black-on-white, bowl (fragmentary), Accession AZRU-00008, Catalog #4976, Morris FS 3796. Analyzed by Lori Reed 2006. Temper is trachyte indicating the bowl was manufactured in the Chuska Valley. Bowl fragment is only about 30% of vessel. Measurements: 18 cm orifice diameter, 9.3 cm height. Image AZRU8-4976 A: interior view of bowl fragment showing painted design. Recovered from Earl Morris excavation of Room 145, refuse below upper floor, Aztec West Ruin. Morris’ description of Room 145 states: “The floor of Room 145 was black from long use. In the center was a fire pit…excavated into clean sand…The lowest stratum of the fill was refuse with artifacts that included a copper bell. The surface of the deposit had been smoothed and an adobe floor laid upon it. In the center thereof was a circular fire pit, slightly smaller than the one directly beneath it, and midway between this one and the northeast corner was another, walled with cobblestones” (Morris 1928:393).
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.