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On yellow and red pigmented bones found in Mayan burials of Jaina

2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 40; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.013

1095-9238

Erasmo Batta, Carlos Argáez, Josefina Mansilla Lory, Carmen Pijoan, P. Bosch,

Building materials and conservation

In the island of Jaina, Campeche, red and yellow pigmented bones have been found. The study of the yellow and red colors in these burials is important for their possible interpretation, either religious, intentional coloring, or to understand taphonomic processes such as reactions of the original pigments with other compounds. Yellow color on bones is unusual in prehispanic burials. In this work, the red bones are shown to be pigmented with cinnabar as mentioned for tombs of important Mayan rulers. The yellow pigment is mainly constituted by Fe as shown by X-ray fluorescence. It was identified to be goethite (iron hydroxide) by electron diffraction. By scanning electron microscopy, the thickness of the pigment layer was measured to be ca. 5 microns. Note that hematite iron oxide is red and that it turns out to be yellow with hydroxylation. Hence, it seems that the nowadays yellow bones were originally red; indeed, yellow goethite may be the result of red hematite hydroxylation.