When you buy through links on our website , we may realise an affiliate delegation . Here ’s how it works .
A Sherlock Holmes - panache investigating has revealed the ancient method acting for the stunning paint have intercourse as Maya blue — and it ’s different from a previous method uncover about 20 years ago by the same research worker .
Maya blue , find by modern researchers in 1931 , is not an easy pigment to make . resound the color of an cerulean sky , the indelible paint was used to accent everything from ceramics to human sacrifices beginning in the Late Preclassic period ( 300 B.C. to A.D. 300 ) .
A mural in Bonampak, Mexico, showcases a Maya blue background.
Maya blue is a highly unusual pigment because it is a mix of organic indigo and an inorganic clay mineral called palygorskite . The rich blue semblance does not melt over time ; it has hold its vibrancy even in the harsh tropical forests of southern Mexico and Guatemala where the MayaMaya civilizationthrived .
For decade , scientist sample to decode the precise method of manufacturing Maya blue , but they did not succeed until2008 . By analyzing traces of the pigment found on clayware at the bottom of a well atChichén Itzá , a Maya site in the Yucatán Peninsula , a squad of researchers top byDean Arnold , an adjunct curator of anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago , determined that the key to Maya blue was really a sacred incense call copal . By heat up the mixture of Indigofera tinctoria , copal and palygorskite over a fire , the Maya bring forth the unparalleled pigment , he reported at the time .
But at the annual coming together of the Society for American Archaeology in Denver on April 25 , Arnold presented his find of a 2d method for make Maya Amytal . The new research has been publish in Arnold ’s book " Maya Blue " ( University Press of Colorado , 2024 ) .
interrelate : unknown altar find at Tikal was n’t made by the Maya — and it has at least 4 people buried inside it
After closely examining a dozen Maya bowls find at Chichén Itzá , Arnold realized that white residue in the vessel was probably palygorskite that was grind when wet , which would have go away traces in the tiny fractures that craunch tools allow for in the pots . Microscopic interrogation of the 12 bowl further divulge flyspeck , burnt works stems , and the bases of the bowling ball showed that they were ignite from below , his tec body of work demonstrate .
" Consequently , the observation of these bowls provide grounds that the ancient Maya used this method as a 2nd way to create Maya blue , " Arnold said in the presentation .
But Maya blue was not just a pretty paint , Arnold told Live Science . It ’s also part of Maya ethnic heritage . " This is a wizardry breakthrough that they made , and evidently the knowledge of it was bound to specializer like priest , " he said .
— ' Stunning ' find reveals how the Maya stand up up 4,000 years ago
— laser give away Maya metropolis , including thousands of social organisation , veil in Mexico
— Mysterious Maya underground structure unearthed in Mexico
Arnold thinks Maya blue was particularlyimportant in sacrificesmade to the Maya rain god Chaak ( also spelled Chaac and Chac ) during geological period of drouth . The result of mixing anil , palygorskite and copal , Arnold said , " is also perhaps an personification of the rainfall god Chaak in this trough after you heat it . "
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again , you will then be prompted to enter your display name .
