Perishable: Yucca Bundle AMNH 29.0/8373

Yucca Bundle, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #8373. Morris FS 1868. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Bundle of wrapped yucca strips, 2(2Z-S)Z twining. Images: AMNH 29.0/8373A: bundle of yucca strips. AMNH 29.0/8373B: close-up 1. AMNH 29.0/8373C: close-up 2. AMNH 29.0/8373D: close-up 3. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 80, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 80 at the time of excavation is as follows. “From 6 inches to 1 foot 3 inches of washed sand and adobe covered the floor of Room 80….The veneer of the south wall, from the bottom of the door to the ceiling level, had fallen, as had a similar portion of the north wall. Dust and refuse….completed the fill to a depth of 5 and one-half feet. One pine log extending north and south had upheld the ceiling and the small poles were likewise of pine. The beam broke near the center, but did not snap off at the walls. Instead, the ceiling bagged downward until the broken ends of the timber came to rest on the fill beneath. Along the walls, under the woodwork, there was a cavity on all sides which never filled. There was much refuse on the second floor, predominantly of vegetable matter. From what remained above the ceiling….[long list of artifacts]….In the fallen masonry, reaching to the surface of the mound, were parts of the unburned second ceiling and charcoal and burned earth from the third…There is a ventilator in each end of the north wall.” (Morris 1928: 327-329) 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.