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Maya Blue: Unlocking the Mysteries of an Ancient Pigment
Maya Blue: Unlocking the Mysteries of an Ancient Pigment - article by Dean E. Arnold
Looking closely, they can see the remains of a blue pigment, still clinging to the crumbling limestone, yet with a richness of color unfaded after a millennium of exposure to the harsh tropical sun, torrential downpours, and hurricanes that have plagued Yucatán for centuries. Pic 11: The Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá (Click on image to enlarge)Grinding ‘white earth’, however, is not just a physical process that makes it easier to use, but it is a key procedure to prepare any stable palygorskite-organic hybrid such as Maya Blue. The six samples of Maya Blue from the Field Museum’s collection principally came from the Grave of the High Priest (now called El Osario) at Chichén Itzá, a mortuary monument also excavated in the late 19th century by Edward H. Thompson, and from the bowl (described above) recovered from the Sacred Cenote at the site.
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