The occurrence of a titanium dioxide/silica white pigment on wooden Andean qeros: a cultural and chronological marker

Abstract A white pigment found on a sub-set of polychromed wooden Andean ritual drinking cups called qeros has been characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy as consisting principally of cristobalite (SiO2), anatase (TiO2), and α-quartz (SiO2). This unexpected assemblage of minerals is like that reportedly found in an exposed titanium ore body in southern Peru, an area once part of the Inka Empire. The ore is a close match in color and composition to the white pigment found on the qeros and offers a possible candidate for the geological source of this material. The temporal horizon for the use of this pigment appears to be ca. 1532–1570, correlating with what we refer to here as the Transitional Inka/Early Colonial period, although production of polychromed qeros may have begun before this time and certainly continued well into the eighteenth century or later. Not long after the arrival of the Spanish, this titanium dioxide/silica pigment was replaced by lead white, a result of Spanish influence. We suggest that white pigments on qeros offer material evidence for establishing a chronology for these ritual vessels and that the titanium dioxide/silica pigment on this group of qeros constitutes a previously unidentified, naturally occurring white pigment indigenous to the southern Andes, the first use of which probably dates to the Pre-Columbian period.