Color Technology in Ancient Egypt

Today we consider chemistry to be a science, but its roots, back in Ancient Egypt, lie in art and the creation of synthetic pigments. Our knowledge of Ancient Egyptian color technology comes from a handful of ancient papyri. The most important, held in the Leiden collection and known as Papyrus X, contains the recipes for making pigments. Another held by the Stockholm collection contains recipes for dyeing and making artificial gemstones. Find out more ...