A team led by Washington State University successfully recreated the millennium-old pigment that was first synthesized in ancient Egypt.
Egyptian blue is considered the oldest manufacturing pigment in history. This pigment is widely used to decorate stone objects and modify wood objects used in funeral ceremonies. Later it also appeared in Roman art.
The process of producing Egyptian blue pigment was unemployed sometime during the Renaissance, researchers said. Information about their efforts to copy the process was first published in NPJ Heritage Sciencee.
Scientists worked with the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to develop 12 independent recipes using different combinations of silicon dioxide, copper, calcium and sodium carbonate. The mixture was heated at around 1,000 degrees Celsius for up to 11 hours, mimicking the conditions that ancient craftsmen might have used.
The researchers found that developing a blue hue that chemically only requires about half of the blue to form compounds with the ancient tones. After their study concluded, scientists found that, besides its relationship to history, the potentially valuable aspect of color is that it is activated under infrared technology commonly used for forensics.
Samples are currently on display at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, part of a new exhibition in ancient Egypt.
