New Insights into Ancient Maya Building Materials: Characterization of Mortar, Plaster, and Coquina Flagstones from Toni
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New Insights into Ancient Maya Building Materials: Characterization of Mortar, Plaster, and Coquina Flagstones from Toniná Francisco Riquelme 1, 2, Martha Cuevas-García4, Jesús Alvarado-Ortega4, Shannon Taylor1,5, José Luis Ruvalcaba-Sil2, Carlos Linares-López6, Manuel Aguilar-Franco2, Juan YadeunAngulo7 1 Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM. Circuito Interior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico DF 04510, Mexico. e-mail: [email protected] 2 Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM. AP 20-364, Mexico D.F. 01000, Mexico. e-mail: [email protected] 3 Dirección de Registro Público de Monumentos y Zonas Arqueológicas. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Av. Victoria 110, Copilco El Bajo, Mexico DF 04510, D.F, Mexico. 4 Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM. Circuito de la Investigación Científica s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico DF 04510, Mexico. 5 Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. USA. 6 Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, AP l20-364, Mexico D.F. 01000, Mexico 7 Dirección de Estudios Arqueológicos. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. INAH. Calle Primo de Verdad 3, Centro Histórico, Mexico DF 06050, Mexico. ABSTRACT This work shows current research on lithic raw material used by the ancient Maya of Toniná. The core of the city of Toniná lies on a steep-sided hill of calcareous sandstones from the shallow marine deposits dated as Oligocene, in the Chiapas Highlands of Southern Mexico. Results of paleontological fieldwork in Toniná show several biostrome sediments mound-like with tabular bafflestones and large coquina flagstones, which are sheet-like rocks enriched with fossil mollusk shells, corals, encrusted organisms, and calcareous debris. The people of Toniná intentionally selected and carved these rocks for use as building blocks and bricks on floors, walls, and stairways. At least two coquina flagstones measuring about 1.90 m long were identified in an archeological context most likely associated with carved stelae. Also non-marine carbonate rocks such as a crudely banded travertine and spongy calcareous tufa from recent sediments of freshwater environments surrounding Toniná were used by the Maya as a raw material on walls, columns, reliefs and murals base. Results of the chemical, mineralogical and micromorphological analysis on plaster and bedding mortars from the walls of Toniná display a slightly interbedded lime of sparry calcite cemented in a highly porous groundmass with silt-to pebble-size of calcareous and siliciclastic rock-crushed aggregates, sand, and soil remains. Lime fabric reveals enclosing quartz grains, granular calcite crystals, and carbonaceous inclusions which may suggest that the lime has been made from a burnt grain-rich limestone with fibrous cement and porous microfabric. WDX analysis in lime lumps of plaster reveal an average amount of 1.37 wt
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