Sascab is a naturally occurring mineral material described variously as "decomposed
limestone", "
breccia", and "the lime gravel mixture the
Maya used as mortar." It has been used as a building and paving material in
Mesoamerica since antiquity. In the context of
pottery the term may also apply to mixtures (with clay and water) of a more finely divided form of the same material (described as "stone dust").
It was used by the ancient Maya in place of (or as a partial replacement for)
lime in some applications, without needing to be "burned."
According to travel writer Jeanine Kitchel, the American explorer of the
Yucatan,
Edward Herbert Thompson found (ca.1900) "shallow quarries near
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza , es, Chichén Itzá , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from yua, Chiʼchʼèen Ìitshaʼ () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people" was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal ...
with worked veins of ''sascab''..."
References
* Littmann, E. R. (1958). 'Ancient Mesoamerican mortars, plasters, and stuccos: the composition and origin of sascab' in THOMPSON, RAYMOND H. ED. American Antiquity. Vol. XXIV Number 2 October 1958; Society for American Archaeology.
* Folan, William J (1978). Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico: An Analysis of a Prehispanic and Contemporary Source of Sascab. American Antiquity 43:79-85.
* Kitchel, Jeanine.
Explorers: Edward Herbert Thompson" Retrieved May 10, 2005.
(of Campeche, Campeche, Mexico.) Retrieved May 10, 2005.
* Osceola, Ilvia Larragán
Retrieved May 10, 2005.
Mesoamerican architecture
Maya architecture
Minerals
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