Colouring materials of pre-Columbian codices: non-invasive in situ spectroscopic analysis of the Codex Cospi

摘要

Ancient Mesoamerican codices represent the religious and historical legacy of the pre-Columbian people,they were produced to record the historical and religious matters. Codex Cospi, a divinatory book, is oneof the fifteen extant pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican books which survived the destruction of the Spanishconquest. Thanks to the use of a set of portable non-invasive analytical techniques it was possible tostudy the Codex Cospi revealing valuable information on its constituting materials (dyes, pigments andsubstrates). The analytical results were compared with historical references contained in early colonialMexican documents showing interesting parallels and providing hints for probable identification ofcolouring materials.