Perishable: Willow Mat AZRU8-3408

Willow Mat, Accession AZRU-00008, Catalog #3408. Morris FS 5551. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Small, rectangular willow mat threaded with 8 rows of 2S-Z AND 2(2Z-S)Z yucca cordage. The cords are tied in overhand knots at both ends. The cords at one end extend beyond the knots and may have served as handles. One side is complete, the other broken. Element diameter = 0.8-0.9 CM. Measurements: L 19.0, W 78.0 CM. Images: AZRU8-3408 A: sewn willow mat in drawer. AZRU8-3408 B: sewn willow mat in drawer 2. AZRU8-3408 C: detail showing short length of mat. AZRU8-3408 D: knotted cords along finished edge. AZRU8-3408 E: knotted cords and cordage, possible handle. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 180, Aztec West Ruin. Morris described Room 180 as “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.