Ceramic: Mesa Verde Black-on-white, bowl, AZRU8-5005

Mesa Verde Black-on-white, bowl, Accession AZRU-00008 Catalog #5005. Morris FS 4943. CULTURALLY SENSITIVE: NAGPRA ARTIFACT; ACCESS RESTRICTED. Analyzed by Lori Reed 2011. Temper is granular igneous rock suggesting manufacture at Aztec. Vessel is 80% restored with unknown adhesive. Measurements: 21 cm diameter, 8.9 cm height. Image AZRU8-5005 A: exterior view showing painted design. Image AZRU8-5005 B: exterior view showing painted design. Image AZRU8-5005 C: interior view showing painted design. Image AZRU8-5005 D: interior view showing painted design. Image AZRU8-5005 E: interior closeup view showing abrasion on base. Image AZRU8-5005 F: closeup of interior painted design. Image AZRU8-5005 G: view of exterior base showing abrasion. Recovered from Earl Morris excavation of Room 180, Burial 100, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 180 at the time of excavation is as follows. “….fallen into ruin [before the later occupation of Aztec Ruin]. The partial excavation of this chamber revealed the first story filled with detritus from the upper walls, including the well-preserved, though broken, timbers, apparently of two ceilings…Visible in it, through the door leading into Room 147, were long slender pine poles and portions of willow mats, some of them with a striped color effect produced by alternating series of white peeled sticks with series of dark brown unpeeled ones. Extending from the upper limit of the debris to 5 feet above the level of the second floor at the west side and 7 feet at the east, was a refuse deposit containing a large number artifacts and Burials Nos. 89-101” (Morris1928:378).
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.
For burials see Earl Morris, 1924, Burials in the Aztec Ruin and the Aztec Ruin Annex, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History Vol. XXVI, Parts III and IV, American Museum of Natural History, New York.