Perishable: Yucca Bundle AMNH 29.0/9965

Yucca Bundle, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #9965. Morris FS 3446. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Bundle of wrapped yucca leaves, blackened. Image: AMNH 29.0/9965A: small bundle of yucca leaves, blackened. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 135-2, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 135-2 at the time of excavation is as follows. “A cobblestone-lined firepit, 1 foot 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep, occupied the center of the floor of Room 135-2. A masonry wall some 7 inches thick, built above the south set of floor supports, transformed that end of the room into a bin. Above a height of 2 feet this wall was broken down. The bin contained 2 and one-half feet of refuse which thinned down to a depth of 6 to 8 inches along the north wall….On top of the rubbish was some washed and blown earth and thence to the surface, wall debris, containing a few decayed, but unburned, sticks from the second ceiling. In the center of the west wall there was once a doorway, 2 and one-half feet wide and beginning 2 feet 4 inches from the floor level. Eventually the masonry below its south side was torn out to within 6 inches of the floor; lintels were laid across the 1 foot 2 inch opening at the level of the sill; and the original door walled up, leaving a secondary passage, perhaps an entrance, but more probably an air hole.” (Morris1928: 387).
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.