Links between Maya Green and Maya Blue at Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Elaborately decorated and painted objects, most typically murals and incense burners, were a central part of the religious and cultural life at the Postclassic period Maya capital of Mayapán. These objects required great skill to produce and requisite control over a variety of materials, including plaster, pottery, and the pigments used as colorants. One commonly used pigment was Maya Blue, a hybrid mineral-organic pigment produced by mixing palygorskite clays with indigo, and heat treating. Previously, we have documented the use of Maya Blue at Mayapán, and here we present new data about the phases present in the blues and greens used at Mayapán, as well as how these different colors were produced, using Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and experimental replication. These new data offer insight into the relationship between the Maya Blue and Maya Green, and technical aspects of pigment production by the city’s artists.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25931