Zen-Haven March 12 2013
An ancient Egyptian pigment — apparently humanity’s first artificial pigment — could soon find new life-enabling modern high-tech applications such as telecommunications networks and state-of-the-art biomedical imaging, according to researchers.
Known as Egyptian blue, the pigment first appeared roughly 5,000 years ago in a tomb painting dated to the reign of Ka-sen, the last king of Egypt‘s First Dynasty.
“Egyptian blue was the first synthetic pigment produced by people, so it represents a major milestone for both human civilization and the development of chemistry,” said researcher Tina Salguero, a chemist and materials scientist at the University of Georgia, in Athens, Ga.
The strikingly bright blue pigment embellished paintings on statues and other artifacts throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Examples of it have been found on the belt of the statue of Iris, messenger goddess of the rainbow, in the Parthenon in Athens, and in a fresco of a garden in the afterlife found in the tomb of the Egyptian scribe and counter of grain Nebamun in Thebes, Egypt.
The material giving Egyptian blue its color is calcium copper silicate. It was made by grinding sand, lime and copper (or copper ore) and heating the mixture in a furnace.
“Its manufacture was shared by the Egyptians with occupying and neighboring groups — Greeks, then Romans — spreading the technology throughout the Mediterranean,” said art and artifacts conservator Renee Stein at Emory University in Atlanta.