Microfacial analysis on the building stones of the Maya site of Calakmul

• Published in: Environmental earth sciences Vol. 82; no. 12; p. 299
• Main Authors: García-Solís, Claudia Araceli, Quintana-Owen, Patricia, López-Doncel, Rubén Alfonso, Illescas-Salinas, Juan Francisco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-06-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Archaeology; Biogeosciences; Buildings; Calcite; Composition; Conservation; Decision making; Dolomite; Dolostone; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental Science and Engineering; Exploitation; Geochemistry; Geology; Hydrology/Water Resources; Limestone; Lithology; Memorials & monuments; Mineral composition; Monuments; Original Article; Porosity; Quarries; Recrystallization; Rock; Rocks; Shallow water; Terrestrial Pollution; Weathering; Quarries; Stone exploitation; Built heritage; Petrography; Calakmul; Maya archaeology; Limestone microfacies
• DOI: 10.1007/s12665-023-10987-z
• EISSN: 1866-6299
• ISSN: 1866-6280

This article focuses on the petrographic and microfacial characterization of the building stones of buildings, monuments, and quarries of the archeological site of Calakmul to document aspects of composition, lithologies, and stone exploitation. Microfacial analysis shows that the used building rocks are highly recrystallized biosparudites (grainstones to packstones) with the presence of reef and shallow waters fauna (boundstones). These rocks have an intermediate porosity (10–20% pore volume values). XRD analysis confirms that the mineral composition is mainly not only calcite, but also dolomite. Microfacies analysis demonstrates that the limestone of the stelae and the SubII c-1 main façade comes from the same quarry since both have the same textures and microfacial features. Their fine texture corroborates that these stones are suitable for carving and lime production. Microfacial analysis also showed that samples from St. XX Gran Acropolis and from Chan Chi’ich Group come from different quarries. These results help us to identify the origin of the rocks, their use in the buildings and monuments studied, and contribute to the knowledge of their lithological characteristics and their response to weathering in a tropical context. Such aspects are crucial to the decision making for future conservation processes.