Characterization Using Raman Spectroscopy of Amazonite and Turquoise of Tomb II, Tingambato, Michoacán, México

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeological site of Tingambato is located in the state of Michoacán, in a transitional zone between the highlands and the lowlands of the Balsas River. This geographical location allowed a long distance interchange of prestige goods used in different ritual context. Evidence of that, are the archaeological artifacts found in the tombs, specially the Tomb II. Inside it, an individual female burial was found with a funerary attire conformed by marine shells from the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and blue-green stones. For this paper we will present the characterization of the lapidary minerals, carried out using non invasive archaeometric analyses, identifying a majority of amazonite microclines and low presence of turquoise, green quartz, caolinite and malaquite. The use of Raman spectrometry helped us in the identification of raw materials, but the use of experimental analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) allows us not only know the raw materials, but also the technological gestures used for the elaboration of the objects found in Tingambato site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23012