Ceramic: Nava Black-on-white, bowl, AMNH 29.0/6985

Nava Black-on-white, Chuska White Ware, bowl, AMNH Accession 29.0, Catalog #6985, Morris FS 597. Analyzed by Lori Reed 2004. Trachyte temper indicates manufacture in the Chuska Valley region. Bowl includes 24 fragments that are not reconstructed. Rim sherd in images is the largest fragment from the bowl. Image AMNH 29.0/6985 A: exterior view of bowl fragment. Image AMNH 29.0/6985 B: interior view of bowl fragment showing painted design.
Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 47, West Ruin, Aztec Ruins.
Room 47 is in the east wing of West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of the room at the time of excavation is as follows. “A Chaco refuse deposit 53 to 8 feet deep covered the floor of Room 47. Evidently the waste had been poured in through a hatchway in the center of the ceiling since the accumulation was thickest at that point and sloped thence downward in all directions. This refuse was characteristically rich in specimens, seven black-on-white howls, one black-on-white dipper, one black-on-white water jar, eight portions of effigy pots, potsherds,… [a long list of additional items]. The door in the center of the east wall is 2 feet 3 inches wide, 3 feet 4 inches high, with sill 2 feet 2 inches from the floor. This door is of the recessed type, a shoulder of masonry on either side reducing it to a width of 1 foot 10 inches where it opens into Room 46. The blocked door in the south wall has been described under Room 45. The sill is a thin slab of stone which protrudes 2 inches beyond the masonry. In the northeast corner is a recessed diagonal second story doorway leading into Room 48. On the side of Room 47 it is 3 feet wide, dropping to 1 foot 10 inches at the opposite end. The sill is 2 feet 1 inch above the level of the second floor and 14 feet above the first” (Morris 1928:304-305).
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.