Maya Blue: Unlocking the Mysteries of an Ancient Pigment

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As one of the world’s most unusual pigments, Maya Blue consists of a nano-structured hybrid of the inorganic clay mineral palygorskite and the organic dye indigo derived from extracts from the leaves of plants in the genus Indigofera. Used from the Late Preclassic into the early colonial period, Maya Blue, among other meanings, was a symbol of sacrifice and the Maya god of rain, Chaak, and adorned pottery, sculpture, murals, and codices. Unlike its constituent indigo and its precursors, it does not fade over time, and is remarkably resistant to destruction by acids, alkalines, and a variety of solvents. Although studies by chemists and material scientists have written many hundreds of pages about its chemical composition, stability, and synthesis, little is known about how the Maya actually created it, and many mysteries remain. This paper helps resolve some of these mysteries by describing the ways that the Maya actually created the pigment based upon the evidence from the analysis of twelve bowls that E. H. Thompson excavated in 1896 from El Osario (the Grave of the High Priest) in Chichén Itzá that are now in the Field Museum.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50494