Perishable: Yucca Bundle AMNH 29.0/8434

Yucca Bundle, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #8434. Morris FS 1927. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Small bundle of yucca fiber. Image: AMNH 29.0/8434A: small bundle of yucca fiber. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 72, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 72 at the time of excavation is as follows. “A layer of washed adobe 2 to 4 inches thick covered the floor of Room 72. Eleven long unpeeled willows had been left standing in the southeast corner. The ceiling support was one pine log running north and south…. The small poles were also of pine. Somewhat more than five cubic yards of dry refuse had been deposited in the room above Room 72. …. [Long list of artifacts]…. Eventually, …the wall between [Room 63] and Room 72 collapsed into the latter chamber, filling it with masonry from 1 foot at the east side to 3 and one-half feet at the west. In falling, the wall brought with it most of the west half of the ceiling of Room 72….refuse poured down from above… [A] secondary deposit continued in an unbroken line across Rooms 63 and 72. It was about 6 feet deep against the west wall of Room 63 and dwindled down to 2 feet at the east wall of Room 72….In the fallen masonry above the refuse were partially burned timbers from an upper ceiling. Eventually, the timber supporting the ceiling of Room 73 slivered near the south end and, with the mass above it, settled down.... A large cavity was left beneath the then sloping ceiling along the north and east walls….At the middle of the north wall is a door, 2 feet 4 inches wide, and 4 feet high, with sill 3 feet from the floor.” (Morris1928: 319-320). 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.