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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2015

Non-invasive characterization of dye-based paints in prehispanic Mesoamerica: The colors of the Codex Borbonicus

Résumé

The library of the French national parliament holds a colorful XVIth century Aztec manuscript, the Codex Borbonicus. In this codex, two stylistically different parts can be distinguished, likely painted by at least two different scribes, possibly at different times (as can be seen in the photographs of page 14 and 24 of the document). The goal of our study is to characterize the coloring matters in order to determine similarities or differences in the paints composition of those parts. To perform such analyses we applied non-invasive (no sampling, no contact) techniques such as X-ray fluorescence, diffuse reflectance, specular FTIR and Raman spectroscopies. While they provide easily interpretable data when the coloring matters are not organic, they are often more challenging for dye-based paints. Our analyses suggest that every single color that has been used to paint the two parts of the document is based on a dye preparation. Some of them are very common and already well-understood by scholars (indigo and cochineal), while others have never been characterized as paints in the other codices recently studied. Extracts from two local plants, Commelina Coelestis and Justicia Spicigera are suspected, and fit what can be found in colonial XVIth century historical records such as the famous Florentine Codex. Clues regarding the characterization and the specific preparation of all these dyes along the two parts of the document will be discussed, and it will be demonstrated that the complete palette was obtained from a limited number of these dyes, through mixes and superimpositions. A comparison with the historical records and the results of the analyses of other Mesoamerican codices will be developed during the discussion of the results.
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Dates et versions

hal-01395707 , version 1 (11-11-2016)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01395707 , version 1

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Fabien Pottier, Anne Michelin, Christine Andraud, Fabrice Goubard, Aymeric Histace, et al.. Non-invasive characterization of dye-based paints in prehispanic Mesoamerica: The colors of the Codex Borbonicus. Proceedings of Dyes in History & Archaeology 2015 conference (DHA), Oct 2015, Thessaloniki, Greece. ⟨hal-01395707⟩
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