Skip to main content

Pigments, dyes, and colors in Latin american archaeometric investigations

Edited by Marcela Sepúlveda (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile  UMR8096 ArchAm (CNRS-Paris 1), France) and Edgar Casanova (CONACyT - Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico)

New Content ItemMeetings held in different Latin American countries since 2011 have evidenced how significant heritage science studies have become in the analysis of pigments and dyes of pre-Hispanic and historical periods in this part of the world. 
Our objective on this occasion is to bring together a series of works related to the physical-chemical analysis of color, but also of the materials and recipes used in the painting and dyeing observed on a wide variety of supports such as rock art, mural paintings, codices, and textiles, among others. The results obtained have an impact on our understanding of the ancient technologies developed by different cultural traditions both in North and South America. Additionally, they demonstrate the progress achieved at the analytical level by various laboratories and international teams working on these issues. 
As in other regions, the study of pigments and dyes shows that they provide new data that will undoubtedly allow a comparison with what has been found in other regions of the world. 

This collection is published in Heritage Science.

New articles will be added here as they are published.


  1. This work concerns the study of colors and dyes identified on archaeological textiles from the Atacama Desert. The different garments and ornaments come from the excavation of two important pre-Columbian cemet...

    Authors: Marcela Sepúlveda, Cecilia Lemp Urzúa, José Cárcamo-Vega, Edgar Casanova-Gónzalez, Sebastián Gutiérrez, Miguel Ángel Maynez-Rojas, Benjamín Ballester and José Luis Ruvalcaba-Sil
    Citation: Heritage Science 2021 9:59
  2. The object of this study is a wide selection of dyed cotton and camelid samples from an important collection of 2000-year-old Paracas textiles, now at the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia...

    Authors: Francesca Sabatini, Martina Bacigalupo, Ilaria Degano, Anna Javér and Marei Hacke
    Citation: Heritage Science 2020 8:122
  3. Almost three hundred Spanish colonial missions—or their remains—are scattered over the vast state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico. A few of them still display painted decorations on the wood ceilings and walls...

    Authors: Edgar Casanova-González, Miguel Ángel Maynez-Rojas, Alejandro Mitrani, Isaac Rangel-Chávez, María Angélica García-Bucio, José Luis Ruvalcaba-Sil and Karla Muñoz-Alcócer
    Citation: Heritage Science 2020 8:91
  4. For millennia, qeros have been a primary component of ceremonially and politically important toasting rituals in the Andes and retain their cultural significance to this day. These wooden drinking vessels unde...

    Authors: Allison N. Curley, Alyson M. Thibodeau, Emily Kaplan, Ellen Howe, Ellen Pearlstein and Judith Levinson
    Citation: Heritage Science 2020 8:72
  5. Could not be possible that rock paintings with similar hues and morphologies were the result of different paint preparations inside a cave but distanced in time? Is there any archaeometric approach that allow ...

    Authors: Lucas Gheco, Marcos Tascon, Eugenia Ahets Etcheberry, Marcos Quesada and Fernando Marte
    Citation: Heritage Science 2020 8:60
  6. The pigments were important in the funerary customs of the ancient Maya. They could be introduced as an offering inside the tombs or burials, and were also used to wrap the dead bodies, as if it were a funeral...

    Authors: María Teresa Doménech-Carbó, María Luisa Vázquez de Agredos-Pascual, Laura Osete-Cortina, Antonio Doménech-Carbó, Nuria Guasch-Ferré and Cristina Vidal-Lorenzo
    Citation: Heritage Science 2020 8:47
  7. Maya blue is a hybrid pigment where an organic component, indigo, is incorporated in a porous clay. Despite its widespread use in the Mesoamerican artistic production and numerous studies devoted to understand...

    Authors: Chiara Grazia, David Buti, Anna Amat, Francesca Rosi, Aldo Romani, Davide Domenici, Antonio Sgamellotti and Costanza Miliani
    Citation: Heritage Science 2020 8:1