Maya Blue is a fascinating deep dive into one of the world’s most unusual ancient pigments, a vibrant blue hue that has resisted fading despite exposure to some of the harshest climates for centuries. The pigment was first used at Calakmul in southern Mexico during the Late Preclassic period (300 B.C. to A.D. 300), after which it spread across Mesoamerica over the next 1,700 years, remaining in use until the Colonial period. It is highly unique both physically and chemically in its combination of organic indigo dye and inorganic clay mineral palygorskite—now considered the first “nanostructured artificial organic-inorganic hybrid material” and amazingly resistant to decay from acids, bases, and extreme conditions. Not just a unique pigment, Maya Blue was also a critical part of ancient Maya ritual and religion, used on pottery, murals, sculpture, codices, offerings to the gods, and a symbol of the rain god Chaak.
Written from an anthropological perspective, Arnold chronicles his decades-long scientific journey to understand this enigmatic pigment, summarizing ethnographic, archaeological, chemical, and material science research and including personal anecdotes that enliven the text. He delves into its history of research and his personal journey to understand Indigenous Maya knowledge of its components, ancient sources, how it was made, its ritual uses and makers, and how it diffused across Mesoamerica. Maya Blue is a highly readable, informative summary of research that challenges some previously held ideas about the pigment and offers testable hypotheses about how the pigment and the technology used to make it may have spread throughout Mesoamerica, as well as directions for future investigations.
