Ceramic: McElmo Style B/W, olla, AZRU1-1030

McElmo style black-on-white, olla, complete vessel, Accession AZRU-00001, Catalog #1030, Morris FS 4868. Analyzed by Lori Reed 2011. Temper could not be identified; olla assigned to a style designation. The olla has a recessed base and stubs from 2 horizontal strap handles. Image AZRU1-1030A: exterior view showing painted design and broken handles on lower body. Image AZRU1-1030B: exterior view showing broken handle stubs. Image AZRU1-1030C: oblique view of orifice and olla body. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 182 Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 182 at the time of excavation is as follows. “….an open chamber entered through the doorway communicating with Room 189, from which the early visitors had removed the masonry with which it had been sealed, contained a Mesa Verde refuse deposit varying little from 2 feet 4 inches in depth. [Specimens secured in the refuse deposits within the room included ceramics and perishable items]. Burial 88 was in the northeast corner. In the center of the east wall is a doorway, now hidden by earth which has been dug over, but not removed. This room contains no ventilator openings. Although no fireplace was observed when the contents of the room were turned, there must have been one, since the remaining patches of wall plaster were smoked black” (Morris 1928:386). 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.