Perishable: Cotton Cloth AZRU8-2723

Cotton Cloth, Accession AZRU-00008, Catalog #2723. Morris FS 4916. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Corner fragment of a cotton plain-weave textile with large area of twined-stitch embroidery worked in a scroll-like design. A second area of twined-stitch embroidery is present along inner edge of side selvage. Measurements: L 13.0, W 6.5 incl tassel CM. Images: AZRU8-2723 A: fragment of cotton plain-weave cloth with scroll-like pattern of twined-stitch embroidery and a pompom tassel. AZRU8-2723 B: other face. AZRU8-2723 C: detail of pompom tassel. AZRU8-2723 D: detail of twined-stitch embroidery. AZRU8-2723 E: detail of twined-stitch embroidery adjacent to the side selvage. 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.