The secret of Maya green

A pigment unknown to art historians has been identified on ancient Maya artefacts from Mexico. The blue-green colour of veszelyite seems to have been chosen to blend in with and even imitate jade, the most precious substance used by the Maya.

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The assumption was that the green was derived from malachite or chrysocolla, but analyses showed instead the use of veszelyite, the use of which as a pigment “had never been reported for any civilisation to our knowledge”, Dr. R. García Moreno and his colleagues report in Archaeometry.