The Colours in ancient Egypt

The Egyptian artist used colours that contain many different grades that he extracted from natural mineral oxides. The Egyptian artist was not satisfied with what he used to obtain from natural materials imported from the Arabs but added to the many industrial coloured materials, the most famous of which are “Egyptian Blue and Egyptian Green”, which he made The ancient Egyptians from natural materials.

As for the colours, they are: –

White: The white colour was known in ancient Egypt since pre-dynastic times. It is one of the most important colours. It has great importance for Egyptians as it was worn by high priests and used to colour the whites of the eyes and colour clothes and lighten other colours, and it could be obtained from gypsum Raw and calcite Calcium Carbonate.

Red: It is considered one of the main colours in ancient Egypt, as it was the colour indicative of victory and was used in writing on walls, on papyrus and at the beginning of the paragraphs and was used to colour the bodies of men, and red ocher is available from the mineral hematite in Western Sahara.

Yellow: Yellow has been used to denote the sun and gold and express the colour of a woman’s skin, and it has several sources that can be obtained from yellow ocher and cover rocks in the Eastern Desert and Ornament. “A bag of Ornament was found next to the possessions of King Tutankhamun.

Blue: It was used in cemeteries to express the blue waters of the Nile, as it was also used in the bishop’s to express the clear sky, and also the blue colour was sacred, as it symbolized the sacred truth, which is the colour of life and the colour of the God of life and reproduction, and it can be obtained From “azurite” basic copper carbonate.

Green: This colour was of great importance to the ancient Egyptians, as it was a sacred colour. It symbolizes eternal nature. It was used in the colouring of trees and plants, and it symbolized youth and vitality, and it can be obtained from “malachite” copper basic carbonate.

Black: The ancient Egyptian used it as a basic colour in colouring wigs and women’s hair, and it was also used as an eyeliner around the eye, and the Egyptian artist expressed it with the black soil of Egypt, which was called “Kumite” which means black earth, and it can be obtained from carbon, which is The main ingredient for the black colour, and charcoal was used as a black colour.