Perishable: Yucca Chain AMNH 29.0/8833

Yucca Chain, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #8833 . Morris FS 2323. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Knotted, yucca-leaf chain. Image: AMNH 29.0/8833A: yucca chain. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 115, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 115 at the time of excavation is as follows: “Upon the floor of Room 115 were quantities of gypsum and a gray shaly clay, probably materials used in pottery making…The next element of the fill was refuse…The greater depth in the southwest corner was due to the fact that the refuse had been poured in through a stair tunnel in the west end of the south wall. More than twenty-five years ago unknown parties sawed out a section of the western supporting timber near the north wall and also the south. To a height of 1 foot 10 inches this wall showed patches of red plaster and 6 inches farther up, flakes of white still adhered. As the space between had peeled off, the height of union between red and white could not be determined” (Morris 1928:358).
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.