Incarnadine - History - in The Ancient World

In The Ancient World

Inside cave 13B at Pinnacle Point, an archeological site on the coast of South Africa, paleoanthropologists in 2000 found evidence that, between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago, Late Stone Age people were scraping and grinding ochre, a clay colored red by iron oxide, probably with the intention of using it to color their bodies.

Red hematite powder was also found scattered around the remains at a grave site in the Zhoukoudian cave complex, near Beijing. The site has evidence of habitation as early as 700,000 years ago. The hematite might have been used to symbolize blood in an offering to the dead.

Red, black and white were the first colors used by artists in the Upper Paleolithic age, probably because natural pigments such as red ochre and iron oxide were readily available where early people lived. Madder, a plant whose root could be made into a red dye, grew widely in Europe, Africa and Asia. The cave of Altamira in Spain has a painting of a bison colored with red ochre that dates to between 15,000 and 16,500 BC.. Red was also the first color, after black and white, to have its own name.

A red dye called Kermes was made beginning in the Neolithic Period by drying and then crushing the bodies of the females of a tiny scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio. The insects live on the sap of certain trees, especially Kermes oak tree near the Mediterranean region. Jars of kermes have been found in a Neolithic cave-burial at Adaoutse, Bouches-du-Rhône. Kermes from oak trees was later used by Romans, who imported it from Spain. A different variety, called Kermes of Armenia, was made from Kermes insects which lived on the roots and stems of certain herbs. It was mentioned in texts as early as the 8th century BC, and It was used by the ancient Assyrians and Persians.

Kermes is also mentioned in the Bible. In the Book of Exodus, God instructs Moses to have the Israelites bring him an offering including cloth "of blue, and purple, and scarlet.". The term used for scarlet in the 4th century Latin Vulgate version of the Bible passage is coccumque bis tinctum, meaning "colored twice with coccus." Coccus, from the ancient Greek Kokkos, means a tiny grain, and is the term that was used in ancient times for the Kermes vermilio insect used to make the Kermes dye. This was also the origin of the expression "dyed in the grain."

In ancient Egypt, red was associated with life, health, and victory. Egyptians would color themselves with red ochre during celebrations. Egyptian women used red ochre as a cosmetic to redden cheeks and lips, and also used henna to color their hair and paint their nails.

But, like many colors, it also had a negative association, with heat, destruction and evil. A prayer to god Isis said: "Oh Isis, protect me from all things evil and red." The ancient Egyptians began manufacturing pigments in about 4000 BC.. Red ochre was widely as a pigment for wall paintings, particularly as the skin color of men. An ivory painter’s palette found inside the tomb of King Tutankhamun had small compartments with pigments of red ochre and five other colors. The Egyptians used the root of the rubia, or madder plant, to make a dye, later known as alizarin, and also used it to color white power to use as a pigment, which became known as madder lake, alizarin or alizarin crimson.

In Ancient China, artisans were making red and black painted pottery as early as the Yangshao Culture period. (5000-3000 BC). A red-painted wooden bowl was found at a Neolithic site in Yuyao, Zhejiang. Other red-painted ceremonial objects have been found at other sites dating to the Spring and Autumn Period. (770-221 BC).

During the Han Dynasty (200 BC to 200 AD) Chinese craftsmen made a red pigment, lead tetroxide, which they called ch-ien tan, by heating lead white pigment. Like the Egyptians, they made a red dye from the madder plant to color silk fabric for gowns, and used pigments colored with madder to make red lacquerware.

Red lead or Lead tetroxide pigment was widely used as the red in Persian and Indian miniature paintings, and in European art, where it was called minium.

In India, the rubia plant has been to make dye since ancient times. A piece of cotton dyed with rubia dated to the third millennium BC was found at an archaeological site at Mohenjo-daro. It has been used by Indian monks and hermits for centuries to dye their robes.

The early inhabitants of America had their own vivid crimson dye, made from the cochineal, an insect of the same family as the Kermes of Europe and the Middle East, which feeds on the Opuntia, or prickly pear cactus plant. Red-dyed textiles from the Paracas culture (800–100 BC) have been found in tombs in Peru.

• Image of a human hand created with red ochre in Pech Merle cave, France (Gravettian era, 25,000 BC).

• Image of a bison from the cave of Altamira in Spain, painted with red ochre between 15,000 and 16.500 BC.

• Painted statues of the ruler Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti (1345 BC)

• Painted red and black bowl from the Yangshao culture period in China (4500 B.C.), in the National Museum of Beijing

• A dyed silk robe from the tomb of a Chinese aristocratic woman (Lady Dai) of the Han Dynasty (about 168 BC)

• Chinese lacquerware from the Han Dynasty (200 BC-200 AD)

• Textiles dyed red from the Paracas culture of Peru (about 200 BC), in the British Museum

In ancient Greece and the Minoan civilization of ancient Crete, red was widely used in murals and in the polychrome decoration of temples and palaces. The Greeks began using red lead as a pigment.

In Ancient Rome, Tyrian purple was the color of the Emperor, but red had an important religious symbolism. Romans wore togas with red stripes on holidays, and the bride at a wedding wore a red shawl, called a flammeum. Red was used to color statues and the skin of gladiators. Red was also the color associated with army; Roman soldiers wore red tunics, and officers wore a cloak called a paludamentum which, depending upon the quality of the dye, could be crimson, scarlet or purple. In Roman mythology red is associated with the god of war, Mars. The vexilloid of the Roman Empire had a red background with the letters SPQR in gold. A Roman general receiving a triumph had his entire body painted red in honor of his achievement.

The Romans liked bright colors, and many Roman villas were decorated with vivid red murals. The pigment used for many of the murals was called vermilion, and it came from the mineral cinnabar, a common ore of mercury. It was one of the finest reds of ancient times – the paintings have retained their brightness for more than twenty centuries. The source of cinnabar for the Romans was a group of mines near Almadén, southwest of Madrid, in Spain. Working in the mines was extremely dangerous, since mercury was highly toxic; the miners were slaves or prisoners, and being sent to the cinnabar mines was a virtual death sentence.

• A restored mural, called The Prince of Lilies, from the Bronze Age Palace of Minos at Knossos on Crete

• Etruscan dancers (480 BC)

• The ancient Romans were lavish in their use of red in interior decoration. This is a fresco in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii, from about 62 AD. It was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and preserved.

• Roman wall painting showing a dye shop, Pompeii (40 BC). Dyed fabrics have been hung up to dry.