45 Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 1618 © 2014 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/opl.2014.4 Archaeometrical Studies of Classic Mayan Mural Painting at Peten: La Blanca and Chilonche Mª Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual 1 , Cristina Vidal Lorenzo 1 , Gaspar Muñoz Cosme 2 1 Universidad de Valencia, Spain. e-mail: M.Luisa.Vazquez@uv.es 2 Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain. ABSTRACT La Blanca and Chilonche are two of the many Mayan settlements located on the lower reaches of the Mopan river (Department of Petén, Guatemala). The archaeological work conducted by La Blanca Project (University of Valencia, Spain) over the last ten years has revealed the rich polychrome of the monumental architecture of these sites, where the remains of ancient mural paintings are of the highest quality. In order to ascertain the materials and techniques used by painters at each site throughout the Classic period, our research team has recently conducted an analytical study with a multi-technique approach based on the combination of several non destructive and micro-destructive instrumental techniques, namely, light microscopy (LM), scanning electron microscopy-X-ray microanalysis (SEM/EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), voltammetry of microparticles (VMP), X-ray microdiffraction (mXRD), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UVeVis spectrophotometry, FTIR spectroscopy and gas chromatographyemass spectrometry (GCeMS). These instrumental techniques provide reliable and complementary data, such as elemental and mineralogical composition, the identification of functional groups as well as specialization studies of electroactive species. This paper presents the results obtained at the Laboratories for the Analysis of Works of Art at the University of Valencia (Spain) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) after chemically comparing the pigments and mural painting techniques of both Maya archaeological sites. INTRODUCTION La Blanca Project and its regional projection When La Blanca Project was started in 2004 one of its main objectives was to establish the scope and type of political, ideological and trading relations between this urban Maya settlement, set in the basin of the river Mopán (Petén, Guatemala), and the other centers in the area. To this end, research has been conducted from 2009 onwards at Chilonche, an archaeological site located 17 km southwest of La Blanca. The river Mopán, together with the Chiquibul and Salsipuedes tributaries, forms a valley over 50 km long, flanked to the west by a gentle sloping mountain range. The fertile lands of this valley, heavily watered in the rainy season by the flooding of these rivers, undoubtedly attracted numerous settlers in ancient times and explains the con- stant occupation of many of these settlements ever since the Preclassic period. However, the maximum urban development of this region came in the Late Classic period in which the number of urban settlements increased considerably. These settlements were noted by an architecture more markedly administrative in nature than religious, and hence the predomination of monumental complexes with acropolises crowned by spacious and distinguished palaces. We believe that over this period the 54