Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1920-05-15
Interesting Material Unearthed
in Ruins Near Aztec,
New Mexico.
LIVED IN COMMUNITY HOUSE
Customs Of Prehistoric People Are
Learned From the Various OBJ
jects Discovered-Ornamen
Practically Untouched by
Time.

New York.-Temporarily displayed
in the west corridor of the American
Museum of Natural History, on the
first floor, can be seen some interest
ing relics of lost race-the prehis-
toric people who built and lived in the
great community dwelling, now In
ruins, near Aztec, N. NJ, which Mr..
Earl III. Morris has for the past three
years been exploring and restoring for
the American museum. Mr.. Morris
has gathered great deal Of material
which will In time be placed on per-
manent exhibition. But the six shelves
In the corridor give an idea Of the ma
ture Of the objects which have been
found and Of the customs to which
they testify.
Relics Of Lost Race.
Here, outlasting their wearers by
centuries, are sandals woven of yucca
leaf, yucca fiber and cotton, and here
the very pattern boards over which
the sandals were made. Here, prac-
tically untouched by time are orna-
ments Of shell cut into disks, and
beads Of turquoise and Of shell. There
are arrow points of jasper, bone avis
and needles and fragments of painted
wood-ceremOnial boards, doubtless.
The basketry is Of two types-coiled
and twilled-sOme of it in an excellent
state of preservation. Then there are
cylindrical netted disks padded with
corn husks. These are puzzle to the
museums investigators. Some one adj
vanced the theory that they might
have been used as snow shoes, but the
small size and unsuitable shape Of
some of the specimens seem to refute
that supposition. A wooden cradle
board with its curiously placed head
piece accounts for the fiattened skulls
typical Of all the skeletons of this an
cient civilization which have been re-
covered. A pillow of mating stuffed
with corn husls, and some human re-
mains wrapped in mating and show
ing the method of burial complete the
miscellaneous portion of the cOllec
ton.
Specimens of Pottery.
to pottery. The specimens are of white.
red and black, and include cooking
and eating utensils. The designs-not
as advanced in conception as some
other of our antique southwestern pot
terry, are. however. frequently skill
fully executed. For the most part
painted In. black. or, less often. in red,
they are sometimes clearly taken from
textile designs sometimes made up of
free-hand curved lines such as would
not have been practicable In textiles,
or, occasionally consist Of crude ami
NAL representations. An interesting
broken mug shows hollow bottom in
which little pellets of clay had been
placed so as to produce a rattle. The
crOss-markings ON the edges Of the
bowls and drinking vessels are very
characteristic of the pottery taken
from this vicinity. Most interesting
among these relics is the coiled pot
tery-made by rolling long strips of
clay and winding them round and
round in the desired shape. as is done
In coiled basketry. In the pottery of
this sort the mark of the shaping
thumb can be plainly seen, and was
frequently used to produce wave
pattern which often attained to very
pleasing development.
Al