Where does Maya blue pigment come from?

Answer 1

Studying the mica deposits in Georgia somehow led to the subject of Georgia clays. Clay is one that state's most important exports. Georgia clays are characterized by a wide variety of colors and chemical characteristics. Somewhere along the Wikipedia trail, Haskell stumbled onto a clay with the odd name of attapulgite, also known as palygorskite. He continued reading the article:

"The name attapulgite is derived from the U.S. town of Attapulgus, Georgia, in the extreme southwest corner of the state, where the mineral is abundant. It is known to have been a key constituent of the pigment called "Maya Blue", which was used notably by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica on ceramics, sculptures, murals and (most probably) Maya textiles. The clay mineral was also used by the Maya as a curative for certain illnesses, and there is evidence to show it was also added to pottery temper."

After searching for centuries, Mexican scholars found a cenote (sink hole) in the State of Yucatan in the 1960s that contained attapulgite. The small cenote seemed far inadequate to have furnished all of the Maya cities with their blue pigment for 1,800 years. Mexican geologists and archaeologists have been searching South America since then for a major deposit of attapulgite. They should have looked northward. Attapulgus, GA is much closer than South America, and adjacent to the Chattahoochee, a major navigable river that flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

The town of Attapulgus, GA is derived from the name of an earlier Creek Indian town named Atapaw-lekhuse,which means "wooden stirring-paddle-very hot." The name may refer to the heating and stirring of raw attapulgite clay that is required to chemically change it into Maya Blue pigment. It is located near Bainbridge in Decatur County, GA. Lake Seminole now covers much of the bottomlands of Decatur County where there were formerly Native American towns.

The locations of the attapulgite mines are close to one of North America's earliest indigenous towns, Kolomoki. It was lived in from approximately 250 AD to 950 AD, which happens to coincide with the occupation period of several Classic Period Maya cities, Kolomoki contained approximately 2,000 residents and at least eight mounds. Anthropologists believe that Kolomoki's population swelled during seasonal markets and festivals. Hopewell Culture sites in the Ohio Valley were contemporary with Kolomoki, but did not contain many permanent residents.