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Maya Blue: How the Mayas Could Have Made the Pigment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

Luis M. Torres
Luis M. Torres*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas, Ciudad Universitaria, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D. F. Mexico.
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Abstract

For over 50 years Maya Blue has been an unsolved problem in the manufacture of ancient pigments. It can be reproduced with several procedures using palygorskite, indigo and heat; however we do not know how the Mayans made this pigment. Interpretation of ethnohistoric data allows us to deduce that Prehispanic, and even Spanish Colonial, procedures for manufacturing indigo may produce Maya blue if clay is added during the process.

We present ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence to support this hypothesis and following the proposed procedures, Maya Blue is reproduced in the laboratory. Microscopic examination and chemical microscopy are applied to the synthetic Maya Blue to characterize and compare it with original Mayan samples.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 123: Symposium L – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology I , 1988 , 123
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988

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