Perishable: Hide Moccasin AZRU8-1782

Hide Moccasin Fragment, Accession AZRU-00008, Catalog #1782. Morris FS 4898. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Large piece of hide, tapered at one end, with scalloped edges and remnants of sinew stitching. Thong tied through hole with overhand knot. Probable toe end of moccasin. Measurements: L 14.0, W 13.0 CM. Image: AZRU8-1782 A: probable toe fragment of moccasin. AZRU8-1782 B: detail of scalloped edges. AZRU8-1782 C: detail showing holes and remnants of sinew stitching. AZRU8-1782 D: detail showing holes and remnants of sinew stitching 2. AZRU8-1782 E: lower face showing scalloped edges and knotted thong. AZRU8-1782 F: side view showing scalloped edge and stitching holes. AZRU8-1782 G: side view showing scalloped edge and stitching holes 2. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 182, Aztec West Ruin. Morris described Room 182 as “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.