The materialisation of colour: Reconstructing Egyptian blue manufacture on late Hellenistic Kos

Abstract

Contrasting Western views of colour as a de-materialised, abstract value, this paper approaches the technologies of colourant production in Mediterranean antiquity as the active processes of colour materialization by examining the late Hellenistic workshop found on the Aegean Island of Kos as a case study. The challenging pyrotechnological process of Egyptian blue production is the focus of this paper, which aims to illustrate the sequence of material transformations followed to create this saturated blue pigment. Despite the widespread use of Egyptian blue in the ancient Mediterranean world, only scarce archaeological evidence of production sites exists. The Koan workshop, containing an assemblage of successfully and unsuccessfully produced Egyptian blue pellets alongside amorphous lead lumps, litharge rods, and earth pigments, provides the material remains to study the pigment’s manufacture. The process of making blue in the context of this workshop can be broken down into two phases. The first phase includes the production of the initial Egyptian blue pellets and the second the further processing for the creation of different tonalities of blue. Bridging the dematerialised notion of colour to the material remains of production, this paper brings us closer to appreciating ancient conceptualizations of colour.