Perishable: Vegetal Artifact AMNH 29.0/7746

Vegetal Artifact, Accession AMNH29.0, Catalog #7746. Morris FS 1339. Analyzed by Laurie Webster, 2006. Worked plant material, possibly a charm. Images: AMNH 29.0/7746A: worked vegetal artifact, possibly depicting a flower. AMNH 29.0/7746B: worked vegetal artifact, possibly depicting a flower 2. Recovered from Earl Morris' excavation of Room 48, Aztec West Ruin. Earl Morris’ description of Room 48 at the time of excavation is as follows. “The floor was covered with refuse.. The greater proportion of this deposit was of vegetable substance; cornstalks, husks, tassels, and cobs, cedarbark, splinters of the same wood, as well as human excrement. This deposit of Chaco age had been completely protected from moisture and constituted, aside from some found in the caves of Del Muerto canyon, the richest repository for perishable artifacts that has come within the experience of the writer. Above this sand had worked down through the second floor before the timbers supporting the latter had failed. These had fallen in recent times, after the mound had reached its final form, as evidenced by the ragged crater left by the settling of the debris above them subsequent to their collapse” (Morris 1928:307-308).
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.

植物质地人工制品，馆藏号AMNH29.0，目录号7746，莫里斯野外编号FS 1339。由劳里·韦伯斯特（Laurie Webster）于2006年完成分析。该标本为经人工加工的植物材料制品，推测可能为护身符。影像资料：AMNH 29.0/7746A：经加工的植物质地人工制品，疑似刻画有花朵；AMNH 29.0/7746B：经加工的植物质地人工制品，疑似刻画有花朵（编号2）。该标本出土自厄尔·莫里斯（Earl Morris）主持的阿兹特克西遗址（Aztec West Ruin）48号房间发掘工作。
厄尔·莫里斯在发掘时对48号房间的描述如下："当时房间地面遍布废弃物堆积层。该堆积层的绝大多数成分均为植物类物质：玉米秆、玉米苞叶、玉米雄穗、玉米棒、雪松树皮、该类木材的碎片，以及人类排泄物。这批属于查科文化时期的堆积层完全未受潮气侵蚀，除德尔穆尔托峡谷洞穴中出土的同类遗存外，这是笔者经手过的保存易腐人工制品最丰富的一处窖藏。在支撑二层楼板的木料失效前，此类沙质堆积已渗透至二层区域。该木料在土丘最终成型后于近代坍塌，坍塌后其上方堆积物沉降形成的不规则凹坑可为此佐证。"（莫里斯1928年：307-308页）
参考文献：厄尔·莫里斯，1928年，《阿兹特克遗址发掘笔记》，第26卷第五部分，《美国自然历史博物馆人类学论文集》，纽约。