File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972771120).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
m THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL were eleven wooden dry goods boxes filled with a surprising variety of ob- jects, something over six hundred speci-
Text Appearing After Image:
Photograph bii Earl H. Morris When cooking pots were cracked or worn out, they were sunk into the adobe floors to serve as storage or hiding places for grain and valued articles. In the picture a portion of one of the floors may be seen in the corner above the mouth of the jar. There was no sign to indicate that anything was concealed beneath until the curiosity of a workman caused him to investigate the hol- low rumble which a tap with his pick upon the hardened earth brought forth from the drumlike cavity within the pot mens in all. The air space in the room below, and the several feet of earth above, had kept the rubbish as dry as if hermetically sealed, so that even the most perishable objects were perfectly preserved. Grains of corn, together with cobs, tassels, and husks were fully intact; also beans and bean-pods, pine cones and branches, and pumpkin seeds and shells. These, together with bones of turkey, rabbit, deer, and antelope, show plainly upon what wild and cultivated foods the aborigines depended for sus- tenance. Cotton fiber, yucca leaves, and rushes represent the raw materials for textile products. The cotton was twisted into yarn and woven into cloth of excellent strength and texture, some of it ornamented in red and brown. The needles with which this cloth was sewed were ingeniously devised. A long strip was split from a yucca leaf, and the basal portion macerated so that only a few strands of fiber remained. The thorn at the end of the leaf made an effective point for the needle, and the frayed fiber at the opposite end was twisted in and around the cotton thread. Yucca leaves, whole or split, were plaited into sandals and mats, or the separated fiber was twisted into cord. Some of the cord is as fine as number sixty linen, and some is as large as quarter-inch rope. A soft and heavy cloth was made from yucca cord and feathers. The down was stripped from the ribs of the feathers and wrapped about the cords, which were then woven into jacket-like garments such as have been found upon the dead in various parts of the Southwest. Rushes were plaited into mats for covering floors, or for wrapping the dead, also into sandals, baskets, and bags.

Note About Images