Mineralogical analysis of pyrite Historical mirrors from Ecuadorian Prehispanic culture.

What is it about?

This research relies on microscopy and digital microscopy observations and spectral analysis techniques: Raman spectroscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), to recover part of the lost identity of two pyrite (FeS2) cones. Conserved in Paris, at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), the first one is registered MIN000-3519 in the collection of the mineralogist René-Just Haüy, the second one, registered 105.504, is a stray object. Our historical research (Gendron, 2022) revealed that the first one, described as an “Inca mirror”, was shipped from Peru around 1760 by the botanist Joseph de Jussieu to his brothers Antoine and Bernard. They also confirmed that these two pyrite cones are archaeological objects of the Ecuadorian Cañari culture (500–1500 AD).

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The results of this archaeometric study considerably enrich the knowledge related to these two MNHN objects issued from the collections of the Cabinet du Jardin du Roy. These “Inca mirrors” have a rich history that saw them pass from the hands of the academicians of the geodesic expedition on the equator line to those of the de Jussieu brothers, academicians and great French botanists of the 18th-19thcenturies. Then, at the end of the 18th century or later, specimen no.1 came into the possession of René-Just Haüy, the Father of mineralogy science. During the 20th century, the circulation of these two objects continued, through the writings of Dr Paul Rivet, founder of the Musée de l'Homme. While the mineralogist Alfred Lacroix gave a new existence to specimen no.2. Finally, it is in our humble hands and thanks to the most advanced analytical means of the archaeometry that these two Cañaris archaeological objects are recovering, at the beginning of the 21st century, large parts of their lost history.