Ceramic: Chaco-McElmo Black-on-white, human effigy, AMNH29.0/6991/7321

Chaco-McElmo Black-on-white, human effigy, Accession 29.0, Catalog #6991 (Morris FS 589) and #7321 (Morris FS 913). Analyzed by Lori Reed 2004. Temper is medium quartz sand and slip is bright white with washy application suggesting production in the Chaco Cibola region. Roughly 40% of effigy fragments were reconstructed with unknown adhesive and plaster material. Note: yellowish unpainted portions are plaster material reconstruction. Much of the head shape, facial features, appendages, and orifice shape are museum artist interpretation/reconstruction. Measurements: unknown orifice diameter (reconstruction), unknown height (reconstruction), 11.5 cm maximum diameter of body. Image AMNH29-6991-7321 A: posterior view showing shape of vessel and painted designs across shoulder and down the spine. Image AMNH29-6991-7321 B: anterior view showing painted design on face and left arm. Image AMNH29-6991-7321 C: right side view showing painted checkerboard panel on side of body and solidly painted head portion with decorated ear. Recovered from Earl Morris excavation of Room 111, Aztec West Ruin. In Morris' notes, he speculates that the head (29.0/6991) may be from the effigy (29.0/7321), which seems correct given the paint and slip characteristics. Morris found that “Refuse had been poured into Room 111 through a stair tunnel, presumably like that described under Room 92, in the west end of the south wall. Directly beneath the opening the accumulation was 4 feet deep, sloping down to 2 ½ feet at the northwest corner, and 1 ½ feet across the east end…The wares from the refuse deposit were of Chaco type, but the majority of the vessels from the burial level were clearly and distinctly later. However, there were some possessing characters distinctive of both periods and the largest proportion of black Tularosa ware which has been observed in the entire ruin. A thick pine log had been set into the refuse 5 feet from the west wall and 2½ feet from the south, as if to hold up the south end of the western ceiling support” (Morris 1928:355).
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.