Abstract

This work presents an analysis towards a description of the manufacturing technique of the Olmec rubber balls found at the offerings at El Manatí. The results present this procedure from the extraction of the Mesoamerican rubber from the Castilla elastica tree, discussing its composition and origin of the rubber balls analyzed towards the production of strips that are rolled to make the ball round form. This characterization was achieved through a series of imaging techniques (radiography imaging, UV-induced fluorescence imaging, and optical microscopy) and portable non-destructive and non-invasive analyses (XRF and FTIR) performed on the collection of archaeological rubber balls and compared with contemporary made rubber balls in the region near El Manatí. The methodology was complemented with laboratory chemical analytical techniques (¹³C NMR-MAS, FTIR, CEA, and GC-MS) applied to selected Olmec rubber microsamples. The new physical and chemical data obtained was also interpreted considering conservation science, to help understand the alterations and transformation processes that the balls have undergone since their recovery in the 1980s.

中文翻译：

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解开来自墨西哥埃尔马纳蒂的奥尔梅克橡胶球：技术和成分分析

摘要

这项工作对埃尔马纳蒂的产品中发现的奥尔梅克橡胶球的制造技术进行了分析。结果介绍了从卡斯蒂利亚弹性树中提取中美洲橡胶的过程，讨论了其成分和橡胶球的来源，并分析了橡胶条的生产，这些橡胶条被卷成圆形。这种表征是通过对考古橡胶球的收集进行一系列成像技术（射线照相成像、紫外线诱导荧光成像和光学显微镜）以及便携式非破坏性和非侵入性分析（XRF 和 FTIR）来实现的，并与El Manatí 附近地区的现代橡胶球。该方法辅以实验室化学分析技术（¹³ C NMR-MAS、FTIR、CEA 和 GC-MS）应用于选定的奥尔梅克橡胶微样品。获得的新物理和化学数据还根据保护科学进行了解释，以帮助了解这些球自 20 世纪 80 年代回收以来所经历的变化和转变过程。