[Aztlan] THE OCCURRENCE OF PALYGORSKITE IN THE YUCATÁN PENINSULA: ETHNO-HISTORIC AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS

[Mario Cabrejos]

Archaeometry
Volume 51 Issue 2, Pages 214 - 230
Published Online: 28 Jun 2008

THE OCCURRENCE OF PALYGORSKITE IN THE YUCATÁN PENINSULA: ETHNO-HISTORIC AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS*
M. SÁNCHEZ DEL RÍO 1 , M. SUÁREZ 2 and E. GARCÍA-ROMERO 3 
  1 European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220 F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France 
  2 Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca, E-37008 Salamanca, Spain 
  3 Departamento de Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, E-28040 Madrid, Spain 

ABSTRACT
Palygorskite is a rare clay mineral used by the ancient Mayas for fabricating the Maya blue pigment and for other purposes. It seems to have been obtained from a restricted area in the Yucatán peninsula where important archaeological sites are found. Geological samples from different localities in this area show a high content in palygorskite, indicating that this clay is widespread in Yucatán. Combining structural, morphological, compositional and geochemical methods, we analysed the common characteristics of Yucatecan palygorskites, and compared them with palygorskites from other origins around the world. These results can be used for defining a fingerprint of Yucatecan palygorskite to be used in provenance studies of archaeological artefacts, in particular the Maya blue pigment.