232 ETHNOLOGY. 



CHAPTEE III. 



COLOES. 



The employmeut of complementary sigus to designate age, altbougli 

 tliey are simple and easily used, has the inconvenience of complicating 

 the definitive symbols, and consequently of overcharging the chart. 

 The age-signs should be used, therefore, only when we can do no better. 

 They may be replaced, as Mr. Chantre proposes in his scheme, by desig- 

 nating the age of the monument by means of different colors. This 

 method has the additional advantage of being more easily read at a 

 single glance, and of suggesting the whole truth to the mind without 

 an effort. 



The difficulty is to find four colors sufficiently distinct, trenchant, 

 and unalterable by natural and artificial light. By distinct colors we 

 mean those about which there would be no dispute. They are blue, 

 green, yellow, and red. Gray, rose, mauve, and violet are less distinct, 

 and their adoption would give rise to numerous tints which, iu time, 

 would be difficult to distinguish and characterize. For these reasons 

 they are laid aside. 



For the easy reading of the charts, it is indispensable that the colors 

 employed should be distinct. After numerous trials we have come to 

 the conclusion that those best adapted to our purpose, the black being- 

 left for topography, lire blue, green, red, yellow, lake, and bistre or sepia. 



The last-naujed color being often employed in topography, as we said 

 in the chapter on charts, ought to be dismissed from the list of symbols. 

 Lake ought also to be set aside on account of its fading out in the light. 

 Employed on the labels of the museum of Saint-Germain it becomes 

 lighter and lighter, until in five or six months it disappears altogether 



The first four colors remain : blue, green, red, and yellow. Against 

 the last named, a grave objection raised by the northern archaeologists, 

 who are obliged to labor a great deal by artificial light, is that they 

 have great difiBculty iu distinguishing this color. But this muy be 

 remedied by using a yellow-brown. Therefore the yellow will remain de- 

 voted to the pah^eolithic age, which being little or not at all manifested 

 iu the north, is a study of least importance directly to the archaeolo- 

 gists of that region. 



The blue and the green are also sometimes confused by artificial light, 

 but it is possible to find shades of these two colors which can be dis- 

 tinguished with sufficient ease both by artificial and natural light. The 

 red does not present a single objection. 



The colors chosen, after careful trials are the four already indicated 

 by Mr. Chantre, with some change of function. 



Palteolithic age Yellow-brown. 



iseolithic age Green. 



Bronze age lied. 



Iron age Blue. 



