%0 Journal Article
%A Sánchez del Río, Manuel
%A Súarez Barrios, Mercedes
%A García Romero, Emilia
%T The occurrence of palygorskite in the Yucatán peninsula: Ethno-historic and archaeological contexts.
%D 2009
%@ 1475-4754
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/49752
%X Palygorskite is a rare clay mineral used by the ancient Mayas for fabricating the Maya bluepigment and for other purposes. It seems to have been obtained from a restricted area inthe Yucatán peninsula where important archaeological sites are found. Geological samplesfrom different localities in this area show a high content in palygorskite, indicating that thisclay is widespread in Yucatán. Combining structural, morphological, compositional andgeochemical methods, we analysed the common characteristics of Yucatecan palygorskites,and compared them with palygorskites from other origins around the world. These resultscan be used for defining a fingerprint of Yucatecan palygorskite to be used in provenancestudies of archaeological artefacts, in particular the Maya blue pigment.
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