Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T04:22:48.912Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comparative Study of Two Blue Pigments from the Maya Region of Yucatan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2012

Silvia Fernández-Sabido ,
Yoly Palomo-Carrillo ,
Rafael Burgos-Villanueva  and
Romeo de Coss
Silvia Fernández-Sabido
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Cinvestav-Mérida, A.P. 73 Cordemex, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. e-mail: silviafidelina@hotmail.com
Yoly Palomo-Carrillo
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Centro INAH Yucatán, Antigua carretera a Progreso km. 6.5, S/N, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
Rafael Burgos-Villanueva
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Centro INAH Yucatán, Antigua carretera a Progreso km. 6.5, S/N, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
Romeo de Coss
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Cinvestav-Mérida, A.P. 73 Cordemex, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. e-mail: silviafidelina@hotmail.com
Get access

Abstract

A comparative study of two blue pigment found in separate megalithic structures in Yucatán México is presented. The first sample (M1) is a piece of turquoise stucco discovered at the top of a building known as Structure-2 in the town of Dzilam González. The second sample (M2) is a residual blue powder that was contained in a Oxcum Café type ceramic vessel recovered in the rubble of the Kabul building in Izamal city. The interest in characterizing these samples increases with the possibility of finding in them evidence of Maya Blue, a dye created in the eighth century by the Maya people, whose extraordinary physical and chemical properties have been studied in laboratories around the world. Maya Blue was a tailored technology used for several centuries, even during the Spanish occupation, throughout Mesoamerica. Despite 80 years of study, the mysteries of its composition, traditional preparation and obsolescence have not yet been fully resolved. Using different spectroscopic techniques (SEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis DR) we have studied and compared the blue colorants in M1 and M2. Results indicate that M1 is Maya Blue. Despite some similarities in the infrarred vibrational spectra of the two samples, we have determinated that M2 is not Maya Blue but a non-Mesoamerican mineral pigment known as Ultramarine which was probably introduced to America by Europeans.

Keywords

microstructurescanning electron microscopy (SEM)infrared (IR) spectroscopy
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1374: Symposium S8 – Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Issues in Materials Science , 2012 , pp. 115 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Gettens, R., American Antiquity 27, 557 (1962).Google Scholar
Van Olphen, H., Science 154, 645–646 (1966).Google Scholar
Shepard, A.O., Am. Antiquity 27, 565–566 (1962).Google Scholar
Reyes-Valerio, C., De Bonampak al Templo Mayor. El azul maya en Mesoamérica, Siglo XXI Ed., Mexico, 1993.Google Scholar
Sánchez del Río, M., Martinetto, P., Reyes-Valerio, C., Dooryhée, E., Suárez, M., Archaeometry 48 (2006) 115–130.Google Scholar
Shepard, A.O., Gettlieb, H.B., Notes from a Ceramic Laboratory No. 1, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., 1962.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.E., American Antiquity 36 (1971) 20–40.Google Scholar
Merwin, H.E., Morris, E.H., Charlot, J., Morris, A.A., Publication 406, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., 1931.Google Scholar
José-Yacamán, M., Rendón, L., Arenas, J., Puche, M.C.S., Science 273 (1996) 223–225.Google Scholar
Doménech, A., Doménech-Carbó, M. T., Vázquez de Agredos Pascual, M. L., Archaeometry 51, (2009) 1–20.Google Scholar
Kleber, R., Masschelein-Kleiner, L., Tissen, J., Stud. Conservat. 12, (1967) 41–55.Google Scholar
Doménech, A., Doménech-Carbó, M.T., Vázquez de Agredos-Pascual, M.L., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, (2011) 5741–5744.Google Scholar
Booth, D.G., Dann, S.E., Weller, M.T., Dyes Pigments 58 (2003) 73–82.Google Scholar
Ashok, R., Artist’s Pigments, A handbook of their history and characteristics, National Gallery of Art, Oxford Unversity Press, Oxford, vol. 2, 1993, 231.Google Scholar
Gobeltz, N., Demortier, A., Lelieur, J.P., Duhayon, C., J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. 94 (1998) 2257–2260.Google Scholar
Del Federico, E., Sholfberger, W., Schelvis, J., Kapetanaki, S., Tyne, L., Jerschow, A., Inorg. Chem. 45 (2006) 1270–1276.Google Scholar
Suárez, M., García-Romero, E., Applied Clay Science 31 (2006) 154–163.Google Scholar
Bosch Reig, F., Gimeno Adelantado, J.V., Moya Moreno, M.C.M., Talanta 5 (2002) 811–821.Google Scholar
Volzone, C., Ortiga, J., Applied Clay Science 44 (2009) 251–254.Google Scholar
Blanco, C., González, F., Pesquera, C., Benito, I., Spectroscopy Letters 22 (1989) 659–673.Google Scholar
Bakhti, A., Derriche, Z., Iddou, A., Larid, M., Eur. J. Soil Sci. 52 (2001) 683–692.Google Scholar
Madejová, J., Komadel, P., Clays and Clay Minerals 49 (2001) 410–432.Google Scholar
Dejoie, C., Dooryhee, E., Martinetto, P., Blanc, S., Bordat, P., Brown, R., Porcher, F., Sánchez del Río, M., Strobel, P., Anne, M., Van, E. Eslande, Walter, P., arXiv:1007.0818 (2010) (cond-mat.mtrl-sci).Google Scholar
Bacci, M., Magrini, D., Picollo, M., Vervat, M., Journal of Cultural Heritage 10 (2009) 275–280.Google Scholar
Plester, J., in: Roy, A. (Ed.), Artists’ Pigments: A Handbook of their history and characteristics, vol. 2, Cambridge Unversity Press, Cambridge, 1993, 37.Google Scholar
Corona Esquivel, R., Benavides Muñoz, M.E., Boletín de Mineralogía 16 (2005) 57.Google Scholar
Miliani, C., Daveri, A., Brunetti, B.G., Sgamellotti, A., Chemical Physics Letters 466 (2008) 148–151.Google Scholar
Ajò, D., Casellato, U., Fiorin, E., Vigato, P.A., Journal of Cultural Heritage 5 (2004) 333–348.Google Scholar