Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Mark Viales/Al Jazeera.
Luis May Ku, 49, poses with his hands painted in Maya blue outside his home in Dzan, Yucatan, Mexico, on September 9, 2024.

Today’s article is about how the preparation of an ancient paint color was lost to history — and about how a contemporary Mayan’s persistence brought it back.

Mark Viales has the story at Al Jazeera.

“Surrounded by dense jungle and beneath intertwining canopies of towering trees, Luis May Ku, 49, trudges ahead through shoulder-height bushes searching for a rare plant. The oppressive 40-degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) heat dulls the senses, and the air, thick with humidity, clings to our skin, causing beads of sweat to form and trickle down.

“After scouring the thickets, May, an Indigenous Maya ceramicist, stumbles upon a shrub similar in shape and texture to others around him, but insists this one is special. He touches the soft, sprawling leaves and tells me it is wild ch’oj (‘indigo plant’ in Mayan, anil in Spanish) – or Indigofera suffruticosa – which is a key ingredient to create the revered Maya blue pigment.

“ ‘It took years before I found it – indigo – and most people from Yucatan believed it to be extinct on the peninsula,’ May says with a pensive look, lifting his sombrero made from interwoven huano palm leaves to wipe his brow with the back of his hand. …

“ ‘The Yucatan Peninsula is going through its worst drought in decades,’ he says. ‘Let’s rest, and I’ll tell you how I recreated Maya blue.’ …

“The bright azure color can still be seen among the ruins at the world-famous archaeological site of Chichen Itza in Yucatan on murals more than 800 years old.

“Only a handful of blue pigments, such as lapis lazuli or Egyptian blue, were created by ancient civilizations. Still, these were predominantly dyes or minerals, while Maya blue required a chemical combination of organic and inorganic substances. Before synthetic versions of blue pigment arrived during the Industrial Revolution, the color was exceedingly rare and often more expensive than gold in Europe. The semiprecious lapis lazuli stone originated in the mountains of Afghanistan and was only accessible to the wealthy. Yet, in the New World, blue pigment was plentiful and thrived.

“When the Spanish arrived in the 15th century, they exploited Maya blue, along with all the treasures they stole from Mesoamerican civilizations. The Spanish controlled the prized colorant until the late 17th to early 18th centuries when synthetic substitutes began to arrive. Common knowledge of Maya blue then disappeared until its rediscovery in the 20th century.

“In 1931, American archaeologist H.E. Merwin first found ‘a new pigment’ on murals within the Temple of The Warriors at Chichen Itza. It was given the name ‘Maya blue’ a few years later (1942) by American archaeologists R.J. Gettens and G.L. Stout. Research paused during World War II, and it was not until the 1950s that powder diffraction analysis revealed the Maya blue pigment had been made by mixing clay, palygorskite (a rare fibrous clay) and indigo. In 1993, Mexican historian and chemist Constantino Reyes-Valerio published a recipe to recreate the color using palygorskite, montmorillonite (a soft clay) and indigo leaves.

“Modern-day scientists value the mysterious paint because its unique resilience to the elements has kept it in near-perfect condition on pre-Columbian murals, artifacts and codices, even a millennium later. …

“It took scientists a long time to understand the formula, and studies are continuing. …

“May was born in Dzan, a village of 6,000 people in the western part of Yucatan about 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of the state capital city, Merida. Most of the peninsula is flat and pocketed with cenotes formed in the aftermath of the cataclysmic meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. Yet in the municipality of Ticul, which includes Dzan, the land rises somewhat, giving way to the Puuc (‘hills’ in Maya) region, which has been inhabited since around the 7th century BC.

“Several important pre-Columbian Maya cities dot the area, such as the World Heritage Site of Uxmal, an ancient Mayan city with beautiful Puuc-style architecture. The buildings in the ruins have smooth, vertical walls with features such as columns, elaborate friezes, decorated masks and curved snakes, mostly representing the rain god, Chaak, and the feathered serpent deity, Kukulkan, respectively.

“The region remains famous today because of its high-quality pottery and clay sculptures, especially the town of Ticul, nicknamed ‘The Pearl of the South’ [3.1 miles] from Dzan. The area is also a source of palygorskite – found in caves – which some potters use to grind and mix with other clays to make pottery more durable. Here, May cut his teeth in ceramics as a student among some of the most renowned artisans in Mexico and eventually began his journey to recreate Maya blue.

“ ‘I dreamt of working as my ancestors did with clay and natural pigments,’ he says, tapping a finger on his temple. He reminds me that, like most people in his village, his mother tongue is Maya, and emphasizes that he is proud to work like his forefathers in creating Maya blue.

“May was 17 years old when he started sculpting wood while studying Maya Culture at the Autonomous University of Yucatan, taking inspiration from Maya architecture around his region. One of his passions was capturing faces with distinct Maya features. About 20 years later, he followed in the footsteps of ceramicists from Ticul and began sculpting with clay and learned from other ceramicists about adorning pottery with organic pigments such as red and white.

“However, he was also fascinated to learn that they also used synthetic pigments – like blue. On a visit to the Maya ruins in Bonampak, Chiapas, he was captivated by murals painted with a beautiful turquoise colour. May discovered that the sky-blue pigment was held sacred by his ancestors and used during rituals. After questioning his colleagues further, he learned that the knowledge needed to create this color in its traditional form had been lost in Yucatan, leading him towards a path of rediscovery of ancient techniques. …

“On January 9, 2023, May announced on social media that researchers in Italy and Mexico had validated his formula. It was the first time the world had seen Maya blue made with traditional methods in Yucatan for almost two centuries.

“David Buti, a researcher at the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council in Perugia, Italy, and Rodolfo Palomino Merino, a professor of physics and mathematics at the Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico, sent him PDFs with scientific breakdowns of their analyses. Merino’s work came through first in August 2022, with a 95 percent probability that May’s formula was genuine. In 2023, Buti’s analysis verified that it was 100 percent Maya blue. Both academic institutions confirmed that his samples, which contained palygorskite, calcium carbonate and indigo, caused an ‘intercalation between the indigo molecules’ – a chemical reaction – resulting in an authentic Maya blue.

“ ‘I was ecstatic,’ May says. ‘My ancestors used Maya blue exclusively in ceremonial practices, and even then, it was in limited supply. It was the color of the gods, and only the elite were permitted to use it.’

“ ‘As a child, my father and grandfather taught me that consistent hard work pays off. Never giving up and trying your best, even if you do not succeed, are typical Mayan values.’ “

Lots more at Al Jazeera, here. No firewall.