Ceramic: Chaco-McElmo Black-on-white, pitcher, AZRU-00008/4446

Chaco-McElmo Black-on-white, pitcher (fragmentary), Accession AZRU-00008, Catalog #4446, Morris FS 4609. Analyzed by Lori Reed 2006. Sand and sherd temper suggests the pitcher was manufactured in the Chaco Cibola region. Vessel is only about 30% complete and has stubs for a strap handle that is missing. As shown in the figure, the pitcher has numerous cut marks that seem to have been for carving and breaking the pitcher into fragments. Measurements: 6 cm orifice diameter (estimate); height unknown. Image AZRU8-4446 A: view of pitcher neck fragments showing incisions or cut marks into the vessel surface. Image AZRU8-4446 B: view of pitcher neck fragment showing strap handle stubs and cut marks. Recovered from Earl Morris excavation of Kiva R and Q, Aztec West Ruin. Note: AZRU-00008/4393, a fragment from this same pitcher, was recovered from Kiva Q. Morris (1924:257) mentions Kiva Q as a comparison to kivas in the West Ruin Annex: "Kiva A.2 is of a different type, but from its similarity to
Kiva Q in the main ruin, which is of known Chaco age, it must be considered
contemporaneous with Kiva A.1." No other published description of Kiva Q is available. Reference: Earl Morris, 1924, Burials in the Aztec Ruin, Volume XXVI, Part III, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.