Pigmentos de pinturas rupestres pré-históricas do sítio Letreiro do Quinto, Pedro II, Piauí, Brasil

Abstract

Recebido em 5/10/09; aceito em 29/9/10; publicado na web em 7/1/11 PIGMENTS OF PREHISTORIC RUPESTRIAN PAINTINGS FROM THE LETREIRO DO QUINTO SITE, PEDRO II, PIAUÍ, BRAZIL. The Letreiro do Quinto rock shelter is located in the rural area of the city of Pedro II, Piauí, Brazil. The sandstone walls of the shelter are covered with prehistoric rupestrian paintings, painted in patterns of yellow and light and dark red hues. The chemicalmineralogical characterization of the prehistoric pigments was made with energy dispersive spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and 57 Fe transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy at 110 K. Results confirm the occurrence of hematite-and goethite-rich ochres and also that the pigment layers are indeed made of a mixture of clay minerals mixed with iron oxides.

Multi-Analytical Characterization of Rupestrian Precolonial Paintings of Inhuma, Piauí, Brazil

“…These results and additional information about the qualitative analysis carried out by ED-XRF can be found at the literature. 23 The elements silicon (Si), aluminum (Al), potassium (K), sulfur (S), calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P), present in all spectra of Figure 4 were attributed, partly, to silicate minerals (of the sandstone rocky support itself) and partly to saline efflorescence, that many times are present in different compositions and contents 7,[24][25][26][27][28] in the pictorial surface layer, where they chemically attack it. Phosphorous (P) can also indicate the presence of alteration deposits, attributed to organic material from the decomposition of small-sized building insects or their excrements.…”

“…The rupestrian art found on rocky blocks and walls, grotto ceilings, caves, and slabs, brings considerable information on the environmental and social-cultural scenario from a distant time, because beyond stands out by the aesthetics and interpretation that come from human consciousness, can bring important indication of how or what were the festive and daily activities, the beliefs, the intimate desires, the practice and behavior of theirs authors, through interpretative scenes. 7,8 The paints used to produce the rupestrian paintings were prepared from a mixture of organic or inorganic pigments, binders (whose function was to give plasticity to the mixture) and fixatives, for better adherence to the rocky surface. Due to the easy degradation of organic pigments over time, their identification in archaeometric studies is limited.…”

“…Numerous analytical techniques have been used for the morphological, elemental, and mineralogical characterization of rupestrian pigments, thus, allowing to advance the knowledge of how lived the human groups that inhabited Brazil in past times, being the most commons: energy dispersive spectroscopy coupled with scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), 7 Mössbauer spectroscopy, 7 Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 13 Raman spectroscopy, 14 X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), 15,16 and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). 17 Although the State of Piauí has a significant amount of archaeological sites registered and others to be discovered, there are still many of them that have not been object of multidisciplinary studies, for example, the archaeological sites of Ema and Furna do Índios (Figure 1), located at Ema and Jabuti locations, respectively, in the municipality of Inhuma, 240 km distant from the state Capital, Teresina.…”

Rupestrian Paintings from the Archaeological Area of Piripiri, Piauí, Brazil: A Current Overview

“…The archaeometry has been used as an important tool for the analysis of several types of ancient materials of archaeological sites from Piauí and the 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy has been used as a non-destructive nuclear technique and decisively fundamental on the chemical-mineralogical characterization of ferruginous species of these materials [10,14,16,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Ochres from rituals of prehistoric human funerals at the Toca do Enoque site, Piauí, Brazil

“…Data collected from some of those excavated sites have been interpreted as containing evidences of continuous human occupation since at least 100,000 years BP [1][2][3][4]. Archaeometric data have been served as important basis to characterize several of such archaeological materials [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”