The ancient Maya used a vivid, remarkably durable blue paint to cover their palace walls, codices, pottery and maybe even the bodies of human sacrifices who were thrown to their deaths down sacred ...

For centuries, scientists from around the globe have probed the secrets of an ancient azure pigment known as Maya blue that vanished thousands of years ago. Maya blue is singularly resilient, adding ...

In Europe, before the Industrial Revolution and the invention of synthetic blue paints, artists used blue pigment—which was at times more expensive than gold—exceedingly rarely. Thanks to the high ...

CHICAGO—Anthropologists from Wheaton College (Illinois) and The Field Museum have discovered how the ancient Maya produced an unusual and widely studied blue pigment that was used in offerings, ...