Ancient Pigments - Our Colorful Past

Vermillion (Cinnabar)

Cinnabar, also known as mercury sulfide, is a highly toxic natural mineral found in igneous deposits all over the world. The first documented use of the brilliant vermillion color to date is at the Neolithic village of Çatalhöyük, in what is today Turkey. Traces of cinnabar have been identified within burials preserved at the 8,000-9,000-year-old site.

This vermillion-coated stone sarcophagus is the famous Mayan ​​Red Queen tomb at Palenque.

Egyptian Blue

Egyptian blue is an ancient pigment manufactured by the Bronze Age Egyptians and Mesopotamia and adopted by Imperial Rome. First used circa 2600 BC, Egyptian blue decorated many art objects, pottery vessels and walls.

Saffron

Saffron's intensive yellow color has been prized by ancient cultures for some 4,000 years. Its color comes from the three stigmas of the crocus flower, which must be plucked and processed within a brief window of opportunity: two to four weeks in the autumn. Domesticated in the Mediterranean, probably by the Minoans, saffron is also used for its flavor and aroma.

Chinese or Han Purple

Chinese purple, also called  Han Purple, was a manufactured purple pigment invented in China about 1200 BC, during the Western Zhou Dynasty. Some archaeologists believe that the Zhou dynasty artist who invented the color was trying to imitate a rare of jade. Chinese purple is sometimes called Han Purple because it was used in painting the terracotta soldiers of the Qin emperor during the first century BC.

Cochineal Red

Cochineal red, or carmine, was first produced by crushing the bodies of a pregnant beetle, by the textile workers of the Paracas culture of highland Peru, at least as long ago as 500 BC.

Ochre or Hematite

Ochre, a natural pigment which comes in shades of yellow, red, orange and brown, is the first pigment used by humans, in the Middle Stone Age of Africa, at least 70,000 years ago. Ochre, also called hematite, is found all over the world and has been used by nearly every prehistoric culture, whether as paint on cave and building walls, staining of pottery or other types of artifacts or part of a burial ritual or body paints.

Royal Purple

A color somewhere between blue-violet and red-purple, royal purple was a dye made from a species of whelk, used by the royalty of Europe for their clothing and other purposes. It was probably first invented at Tyre during the Imperial Roman period of the 1st century AD.

Maya Blue

Maya blue is a bright blue pigment used by the Maya civilization to decorate pottery and wall mural paintings beginning about AD 500. It was also very important in some Maya ritual contexts.

Working with Pigments at Blombos Cave

The earliest evidence for the processing of color pigments for ritual or artistic comes from the early modern human site of Blombos cave in South Africa. Blombos is a Howiesons Poort/Stillbay occupation, and one of the middle Stone Age sites in South Africa that include evidence of early modern behaviors. the residents of Blombos mixed and prepared a red pigment made of crushed red ocher and animal bone.

Maya Blue Rituals and Recipe

Archaeology research in 2008 revealed the contents and recipe of the ancient color of Maya blue. although it had been known since the 1960s that the bright turquoise color Maya blue was created from a combination of palygorskite and a tiny bit of indigo, the role of the resin incense called copal was not known until researchers from Chicago's Field Museum completed their studies.

Upper Paleolithic Cave Art

The glorious paintings that were created during the upper Paleolithic period in Europe and in other locations were the results of human creativity and the input of a wide range of colors, created from natural pigments mixed with a wide variety of organic substances. Reds, yellows, browns, and blacks were derived from charcoal and ocher, blended to make fabulous lifelike and abstract representations of animals and humans alike.