Perishable: Cornhusk Basket AMNH 29.0-7411

Cornhusk Basket, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #7411. Morris FS . Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Openwork cornhusk basket. Images: AMNH 29.0-7411 A: base and partial side of cornhusk basket. AMNH 29.0-7411B: base only. AMNH 29.0-7411C: intact section of side wall. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 62-2, Aztec West Ruin. Morris’ (1928:317) description of Room 62-2 is as follows: “A rat nest of which the major constituent was about six bushels of cornhusks and tassels, reed stems, and cedarbark, occupied the southwest corner of Room 62-2. Among this mass were a bird bone tube, knotted yucca strips, a rectangular frame, a cedarbark pot rest, fragments of plaited matting, a plaited sandal, cotton cloth, buckskin, reed stem arrows, a smoothed stick, a carved stick, and adobe mud with a human footprint (29.0-7409-7423), and a hafted knife (29.0-7408) which lay on the floor in the northeast corner. The fallen timbers of the roof of the second story were uncharred. The door in the west wall is mentioned under Room 60-2 and the diagonal passage in the southwest corner under Room 49. The door in the middle of the north wall is 1 foot 11 inches wide, beginning 2 feet 1 inch from the floor.”
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.