68 Mr. William J. Bussell [March 17, 



is clay. When moist they have a greasy feel, and work smoothly 

 and well with the brush. There is no evidence of these bodies 

 having changed colour, but undoubtedly they are chemically not 

 nearly so stable as the red form of oxide of iron. Many of the 

 pieces of this pigment, found at Gurob and at Tel-el- Armarna, are 

 very fine in colour. 



Some of the specimens of the very earliest colours of which the 

 exact history is known, appear to be an artificial mixture of these two 

 colours, the red and yellow, thus producing an orange colour. These 

 samples were found on a tomb at Medum, which, according to 

 Professor Flinders Petrie, was built by Nefermat, a high official and 

 remarkable man at the Court of Senefru. Senefru is known to have 

 lived in the fourth dynasty, about 4000 B.C., and to have preceded 

 Khufu, the Cheops of the Greeks, who was the great Pyramid 

 builder. Now, on Nefermat's tomb the characters and figures are 

 incised and filled in with coloured pastes, which I have been able to 

 examine, and it is of interest to know that this use of colour was a 

 special device of Nefermat, for on his tomb it is stated that : " He 

 marie this to his gods in his unspoilable writing." In this unspoilable 

 writing the figures are all carefully undercut, so that the coloured 

 pastes, so long as they held together, should not be able to drop out. 

 All the pastes used are dull in colour, consisting entirely of natural 

 minerals. Haematite, ochre, malachite, carbon, and plaster of Paris 

 appear to be the materials used. Chessylite, as a blue, probably was 

 known even at that date, but the artificial blues seem hardly at this 

 period to have come into use ; certainly they are not found in the 

 specimens of the Nefermat colours which I have examined. Another 

 yellow pigment, far brighter in colour, was also often used. It is a 

 sulphide of arsenic, orpiment ; it is a bright and powerful yellow, 

 again a body found in nature, but a much rarer body than ochre, and 

 consequently, probably was only used for special purposes, when a 

 brilliant yellow was required. As far as it is known at present, 

 this pigment did not come into use until the eighteenth dynasty. 

 Gold might even be placed among the yellow pigments, for it was 

 largely used, and with wonderfully good effect. Its great tenacity 

 seems to have been fully recognised, for gold is found in very thin 

 sheets, and laid on a yellow ground, exactly as is done at the present 

 day. 



These pigments are then simply natural minerals, no doubt 

 carefully selected, and sometimes ground and washed previous to 

 being used ; but the blue colour which is so largely used by the 

 Egyptians is an artificial pigment, and consequently has far more 

 interest attached to it than those already mentioned. It is a body 

 requiring considerable care and experience to make, and thus its 

 manufacture enables us to some extent to judge of the knowledge and 

 ability which its producers had of carrying on a chemical manufac- 

 ture. No doubt the splendid blue of the mineral chessylite was first 

 used, but certainly in the twelfth dynasty — that is, about 2500 b.c. 



