Technical Examination of Mural Painting Fragments from Plaza of the Columns Complex of Teotihuacan: A Comparative Study

Summary

The discovery of numerous Maya-style mural painting fragments during the archaeological excavations in the Plaza of the Columns Complex of Teotihuacan, sprouted debates concerning if these murals were drawn by a Maya artist.

In order to compare the pigments composition and the pictorial technique of these paintings with mural paintings from the Maya area from the Classic Period, a non-invasive characterization of the thin ground layer of stucco and the pigments used in the painting discovered in Teotihuacan was carried out. The color palette shows red, yellow, blue, green, black and white pigments. First a False Color Infrared Imaging method combined with Optical Microscopy was used to contrast the pigments. Afterwards, several spectroscopic non-destructive techniques (X-ray fluorescence, Fiber Optic Reflectance and Raman Spectrometries), as well as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM-EDS) were applied for pigment identification. The main results of this comparative study are discussed in order to understand the degree to which local or non-local pigments were utilized by the artist in question.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21856