The Value of Colour Shiyanthi Thavapalan David A. Warburton (eds.) Thavapalan / Warburton (eds.) The Value of Colour of Value The (eds.) / Warburton Thavapalan BERLIN STUDIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD , an interdisciplinary group of scholars come together to examine economically relevant questions concerning a narrow slice of social and cognitive history: namely, colours. Traditionally, the study of colours has been approached from a cultural or linguistic perspective. The essays collected in this volume highlight the fact that in earliest human history, colours appear in contexts of prestige (value) and com- merce. Acquisition, production, labour, circulation and consumption are among the issues discussed by individ- ual authors to show how colourful materials acquired meaning in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. Spanning the Palaeolithic to the early Imperial Rome, the contributions also demonstrate the many questions asked and approaches used by historians in the growing fi eld of Colour Studies. Shiyanthi Thavapalan David A. Warburton (eds.) berlin studies of 70 the ancient world berlin studies of the ancient world · 70 edited by topoi excellence cluster The Value of Colour material and economic aspects in the ancient world edited by Shiyanthi Thavapalan David Alan Warburton Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2019 Edition Topoi / Exzellenzcluster Topoi der Freien Universität Berlin und der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Cover image: Uluburun ship, adapted from the reconstruction in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology (Turkey). Shiyanthi Thavapalan 2019. Design concept: Stephan Fiedler Printed and distributed by PRO BUSINESS digital printing Deutschland GmbH, Berlin ISBN 978-3-9820670-1-8 ISSN (Print) 2366-6641 ISSN (Online) 2366-665X DOI 10.17171/3-70 First published 2019 Published under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 3.0 DE. For the terms of use of third party content, please see the reference lists. www.edition-topoi.org CONTENTS Preface — 7 david a. warburton Value of Colour: Introduction — 9 wolfgang schenkel Colours as Viewed by the Ancient Egyptians and the Explanation of this View as Seen by Academics Studying Colour — 35 theodora moutsiou Colour in the Palaeolithic — 55 daniella e. bar-yosef mayer The Colour of Ornaments in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Levant: Their Symbolic Meaning and Economic Value — 69 gonca dardeniz Significance of Colour in the Second Millennium BC: The Perception and Use of Glass at the Centre and Periphery of the Hittites — 99 anna k. hodgkinson Manufacturing Colourful Glass Objects in New Kingdom Egypt: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis — 125 shiyanthi thavapalan Stones from the Mountain, Stones from the Kiln: Colour in the Glass Texts from Ancient Mesopotamia — 177 louise quillien The Economic Role of Coloured Textiles in Babylonia (1st Millennium BC) — 201 ingrid blom-böer (with david a. warburton) The Composition of the Colour Palette and the Socio-Economic Role of Pigments Used in Egyptian Painting — 231 fritz blakolmer The Language of Colour and Material: Were Architectural Façades in the Aegean Bronze Age Brightly Painted? — 255 lydia pelletier-michaud Colour me Greek: Poetic Value, Economy of Language and the Chromatic Vocabulary in Roman Elegy — 283 cecilie brøns Ancient Colours: Perspectives and Methodological Challenges — 311 Preface This publication is the result of a workshop held at the Excellence Cluster Topoi from 4 to 7 February 2016, following a chance meeting and an absorbing discussion about colours in Berlin. In recent years, the field of colour studies has gained traction across a wide range of academic disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive sciences, psychology and the fine arts. The aim of our workshop was to provide a multidisciplinary forum to promote discussion and debate about one particular theme, that of the economic value of colour in ancient times, from diverse perspectives. Fortunately, most members of that group sent in manuscripts for this volume, which we then subjected to intensive collabo- rative editing and re-working. Included here are papers by Egyptologists, Assyriologists, Classicists and archaeologists of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean world. We would like to thank all of our contributors for participating so enthusiastically in this extremely productive exchange of ideas and critical feedback. Our thanks are also due to the reviewers selected by Edition Topoi – this volume has certainly benefited from their expertise and helpful comments. For generously support- ing the workshop in Berlin and the publication of this book, we extend our gratitude to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Gerd Graßhoff and Michael Meyer (the spokesmen who coordinate the Excellence Cluster Topoi in Berlin). Finally, Gisela Eberhardt and Nadine Riedl deserve special thanks for their assistance during the publication process. Shiyanthi Thavapalan, Providence David A. Warburton, Berlin David A. Warburton Value of Colour: Introduction Summary Bright colours and pure whites were appreciated in the ancient world, appearing in texts and artefacts. In contrast to modern colours, ancient colours were intimately tied to the real world of the palaces, temples and tombs of the elites and divinities of the Bronze Age. The origins and history of abstract ancient colours are highly material; the names of precious materials were used to designate not only some early colours, but these materials also lent their names to some of the earliest artificial products, likewise bound into the world of colours. Pigments used for dyeing and painting must be separated from the actual precious materials, which had relatively high prices as documented in the material from Egypt and Mesopotamia. The same precious materials and colours were highly esteemed across the entire ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age world, from Mesopotamia to the Aegean. Keywords: colour terminology; hues; precious materials; prices; value; imitations Bunte Farben und reines Weiß waren in der bronzezeitlichen Welt beliebt und treten so- wohl an Objekten als auch in der Sprache auf. Im Gegensatz zur Moderne waren Farben damals eng mit der realen Welt der Paläste, Tempel und Gräber von Eliten und Gotthei- ten verbunden. Der Ursprung und die Geschichte abstrakter Farbbegriffe ist im Material verankert: Kostbare Materialien verliehen nicht nur einigen frühen Farben ihren Namen, sondern auch einigen der frühesten Artefakte, die damit ebenfalls in die Welt der Farben eingebunden waren. Zum Färben und Malen verwendete Pigmente müssen von den kostba- ren Materialien unterschieden werden, die den Quellen aus Ägypten und Mesopotamien zufolge hohe Preise erzielten. Beides, kostbare Materialien und Farben, wurde in der ge- samten vorderasiatischen bronzezeitlichen Welt, von Mesopotamien bis zur Ägäis, hoch geschätzt. Keywords: Farbterminologie; Farbe; kostbare Materialien; Preise; Wert; Nachahmungen Shiyanthi Thavapalan, David Alan Warburton (eds.) | The Value of Colour. Material and Economic As- pects in the Ancient World | Berlin Studies of the Ancient World 70 (ISBN 978-3-9820670-1-8; DOI: 10.17171/3-70) | www.edition-topoi.org 9 david a. warburton Significantly, almost a century ago, Walter F. Otto stressed that the essence of the Greek gods was “eternal brilliance”,“mighty magic glowing in gold”,“intrinsic radiance”;Deme- ter stood forth in “shining beauty”,Artemis was a “bright spirit”,Dionysos was “golden haired”.1 By contrast, the less than divine Ariadne was but “blond” (like the “fostered by Zeus” Menelaos) – while ordinary warriors merely “long-haired”.2 After being wel- comed by the gods, Ino became the “bright” or “white” (Λευκοϑέη) goddess.3 The links between “bright”,“white”,“gold” and divinity are clear. Leo Oppenheim, Elena Cassin and recently, Rosel Pientka-Hinz have also stressed that the gods of earliest Mesopotamia were distinctly associated with the bright and luminous.4 When Hammurabi “heaps up luxury for [the gods] Anu and Ishtar”,5 the Royal Cemetery of Ur confirms that he largely means shining gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and carnelian (cf. Figs. 1, 2 and 3).6 Thus light and colour were attributes of the gods, with whom the kings shared precious metals and stones. Colour was nothing ordinary at the dawn of history: brilliant, shining, golden light was divinity itself. Walter F. Otto also cites Nietzsche approvingly concerning their shared admiration for Epicurus. In the quote Otto draws from the 19th century philosopher, Nietzsche describes enjoying the luck of the afternoon of Antiquity: – I see his eye looking across a wide white sea, to the cliffs of the shore where the sun lies while great and small creatures play in its light, certain and calm like the light of that eye itself.7 An enraptured Greek taking pleasure at thought would never have expressed himself this way: involuntarily we think of the “bright” or “wine(-coloured)” sea,8 the “golden faced” Sun,9 and “gleaming eyed” Athena,10 as these reflect how the Greeks treated the nature of the sublime. For the Greeks, it was not mere ‘light’, but rather a vague and enchanting ‘brightness’. In his form, Nietzsche was not being lax. Yetunthinkingly, through his language, he revealed our own disenchantment. In the modern world – with gas, electricity, and syn- thetic pigments – light and colour are all around us; light and colour have lost all mean- 1 Otto 2002, 164–165, 208, 211 (the first edition goes sein Auge auf ein weites weißliches Meer blicken, back to 1929). über Uferfelsen hin, auf denen die Sonne liegt, 2 Hom. Od. 1.408; 4.203; 4.291. während großes und kleines Getier in ihrem Licht 3 Hom. Od. 5.334. spielt, sicher und ruhig wie dies Licht und jenes 4 Oppenheim 1943; Cassin 1968. Auge selber”. 5 Richardson 2000, 33. 8 Hom. Od. 5.349. 6 E.g., Aruz 2003, 93–132. 9 Liddell, Scott, and H. S. Jones 1958 χρυσοπρόσω- 7 Nietzsche in Fröhliche Wissenschaft, cited by Otto in πος, q.v. Otto 1963, 10. My translation of “das Glück des 10 Hom. Od.