Lead Isotopes as Chronological Markers for Colonial Period Ritual Drinking Vessels in the Andes

Summary

Ritual drinking vessels called qeros have been produced in the Andes for millennia. In the colonial period, Andean artists produced wooden qeros, many of which were decorated using a polychrome inlay technique. Almost all extant polychromed wooden qeros attributed to the colonial period derive from museum and private collections and lack provenience and precise means of dating. Here, we investigate the chronology and production of qeros by characterizing lead white pigment (lead hydroxycarbonate or lead carbonate, introduced to the Andes by the Spanish) used in the decoration of these vessels. We analyzed the Pb isotopic composition of lead white pigments taken from 21 colonial period qeros that currently reside in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian Insitution, the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and in private collections. The results indicate that, during the early colonial period Andean artists initially used lead white pigment manufactured from Spanish ores. In contrast, later period qeros were decorated with lead white pigment that was likely synthesized from local ore sources. Based on these results, we suggest the isotopic composition of lead white pigment may function as a chronological marker for colonial period qeros.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21015