The secret of the durability of the paint, which was used by the ancestors of the Incas to "resurrect" the dead, has been revealed

Thirty years ago, archaeologists excavated the grave of a noble man about 40-50 years old. He was

representative of the Sican culture of Peru,society that preceded the Incas. The man’s skeleton, as well as the golden mask covering his severed skull, were painted bright red. A study published in the ACS Journal of Proteome Research showed that in addition to the red pigment, it contains proteins from human blood and bird eggs.

The Xicang culture is one of many blind spots inhistory of South America. It existed from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries along the northern coast of modern Peru. During the Middle Sican period (c. 900–1100 AD), its representatives produced many gold objects, many of which were buried in elite class tombs.

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In the early 1990s, a group of archaeologists and restorersLed by Izumi Shimada, they excavated a tomb where they discovered the skeleton of an elite man in a sitting position. It was painted red and was upside down in the center of the chamber. Nearby were the skeletons of two young women in childbirth positions, and the skeletons of two squatting children were placed at a higher level.

Among the many gold artifacts found inThe tomb also contained a red-painted gold mask that covered the severed skull of a man. At the time, scientists identified the red pigment in the paint as cinnabar, but Luciana de Costa Carvalho, James McCullagh and his colleagues decided to find out what exactly the Sican people used in the paint as a binding material that held the layer of paint to the metal surface of the mask for thousands of years.

Researchers analyzed a small samplered paint with a mask. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that the sample contained proteins. Scientists performed proteomic analysis using tandem mass spectrometry. They identified six proteins in human blood, including serum albumin and immunoglobulin G (a type of human serum antibody). Other proteins, such as egg albumin, are derived from egg whites. Because the proteins are highly decomposed, the researchers were unable to pinpoint the exact type of bird egg the paint was made from. But most likely they belonged to a musk duck.

Protein identification supports the hypothesis thatthat the blood-containing paint, which covered the human skeleton and his face mask, was supposed to symbolize the "resurrection" of the deceased and his "vitality." Also, the location of the skeletons, like the entire rite, is associated with the desire to bring a deceased person back to life.

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Izumi Shimada is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. World famous scientist.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopyand diffuse reflection (DRIFTS) is a specialA reflectance sampling technique that allows the collection of high-quality spectra from solid samples that are very difficult to analyze by transmission, such as soil or concrete.

Proteomics is the field of molecular biology dedicated to the identification and quantitative analysis of proteins.