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

Autor: Silvia Fernandez-Sabido, Yoly Palomo-Carrillo, Romeo de Coss, Rafael Burgos-Villanueva
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: MRS Proceedings. 1374:115-123
ISSN: 1946-4274
0272-9172
DOI: 10.1557/opl.2012.1382
Popis: 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.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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