Colour in a new light: origins, trade and cultural significance of ancient pigments

Alexandra Rodler-Rørbo, Austrian Academy of Sciences

The earliest mineral pigments used by humans were ochres, and the oldest human-made pigment is the multi-component material Egyptian blue that made its appearance in the Bronze Age, parallel to significant changes in glass and metal technology. Egyptian blue might have been made to imitate precious stones such as lapis lazuli, and its production also used raw materials that were not readily available in Egypt, such as copper.

While ochre might have already been brought along over considerable distances, copper for making the first artificial pigment was certainly traded far. The earliest known pigment workshops were excavated in Egypt, and at least some of them might have been supplied with copper from the Aegean. By looking at the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to the Roman period, this project investigates whether pigment trade and production networks were centralised or decentralised and whether they were connected across material types and craft industries. With this, we aim to address the question of whether pigments can provide us with crucial insights into the understanding of cultural (ex)change.

Archaeological evidence and advances in analytical methods have revealed colour in various contexts, and there is ample indication of its relevance from burial contexts to walls and sculpture and its potential to signify cultural and political change. The use of colour shows the interaction between people and their natural environment. Colour was an inherent part of the message communicated with wall paintings and sculpture in antiquity and is still significant for our visual language today.

A systematic approach

A recent study of a small set of Mediterranean artefacts of Etruscan, Canosan and Egyptian contexts consistently revealed that raw materials used for making Egyptian blue came from distant sources and showed rather complex trade patterns. Exploring this further has the potential to change our understanding of how societies interacted and exchanged materials.

Pigment provenance research is still in its infancy and far behind ceramics, glass or metal artefacts. This is certainly due to the comparatively frail nature of mineral pigments, which is why most studies of ancient polychromy focus on qualitative in-situ characterisation with highly advanced imaging/photography, spectroscopy and microscopy techniques. Following such characterisation, geochemical approaches have the potential to trace material provenance.

By scientifically analysing, archaeologically and historically contextualising raw materials, raw and processed pigments, this project bridges the gap from raw material to artwork to bring the cultural significance of pigments (material choice) to light. In turn, through the lens of material provenance and processing, this project brings the organisation of pigment production into sharp focus to reveal trade networks and their response to economic and political change.

Project stages

Pigment provenance research has been gaining momentum in the past years, but the methodological groundwork is not keeping up: the ancient colour palette remains largely unexplored, provenance tracers are not well constrained, and there is currently no pigment-specific reference database available for data interpretation.

This project addresses these challenges in a new way: it builds a basis for pigment provenance and production research by establishing a database and tools. This is used to evaluate the organisation of pigment production and trade and, with this, the cultural significance of ancient mineral pigments. First tests of this new approach will use several connected and diachronic proof-of-concept studies from the late Bronze Age in the Aegean to the 1st century CE across the Mediterranean. This pushes beyond the boundary of current pigment provenance research by analysing trade- and production networks, which will be included in an online and open-access pigment repository and map that will be available beyond this project. This project gathers and organises data on pigment technology and provenance to discuss changes in the organisation of material trade- and production networks.

A dedicated mass spectrometer (MC- ICP-MS) for isotope analysis is crucial and was purchased through this project. This instrument is included in the newly established Geochemistry Lab that is part of the larger Archaeological Science Laboratory infrastructure at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. This instrument will enable fast and precise isotope ratio data analysis of a wide range of relevant tracers such as lead (Pb) and strontium (Sr).

Project impact

This research aims to improve our understanding of past developments, interactions and organisation of markets and industries. This understanding of the motivations of past exchange is historically relevant and may help us understand the origins of contemporary cultural and economic exchange patterns.

What makes this project unique is its interdisciplinary approach, the innovative combination of established methodology and its new application to ancient polychromy. The impact of this project will go beyond ancient polychromy research: extensive mineral pigment analysis in the context of diachronic trade and production networks will significantly advance the understanding of past innovations in technology, economic structures and resource use.

The analysis across cultures and periods will reveal the value and cultural significance of pigments and potentially diachronic changes in the organisation of their supply and production networks. This will significantly change our understanding of the human past: colourful changes and cultural connections are revealed, advance the perception of ancient material research, and enrich the discussion in related fields such as cultural heritage research and art history.

PROJECT NAME

Color in a New Light – Origins, Trade and Cultural Significance of Ancient Pigments

PROJECT SUMMARY

The ERC Starting Grant project HUE focuses on the provenance and production technology of ancient pigments from the late Bronze Age to the 1st century CE. We develop a much-needed pigment-specific reference database and test relevant tracers to improve comparative analysis. With HUE’s open-access pigment repository and map, we provide new research tools for future pigment and ancient polychromy research.

PROJECT PARTNERS

HUE is based in Vienna at the newly established Archaeological Science hub of the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Close collaborations with the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the University of Vienna, and national as well as international museum collections support this project.

PROJECT LEAD PROFILE

Alexandra Rodler-Rørbo received her PhD in geology-geosciences from the University of Copenhagen with a thesis on isotope geochemistry and has since worked at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Since 2023, she has been a research associate at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where she coordinates the Geochemistry Lab. She is interested in the links between art, technology and science.

PROJECT CONTACTS

Alexandra Rodler-Rørbo Austrian Archaeological Institute Austrian Academy of Sciences

Dominikanerbastei 16, AT-1010 Vienna

Email: alexandra.rodler-rorbo@oeaw.ac.at

Web: www.oeaw.ac.at/en/oeai/research/archaeological-sciences/geochemistry-lab

FUNDING

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101078382.