Ochre
Natural · Prehistory to present
- Source material
- Naturally occurring iron-oxide clay
- Geography
- Found and used worldwide
- Earliest documented use
- Prehistoric (tens of thousands of years ago)
- Cost & availability
- Widely available and inexpensive — one of the most common historical pigments.
- Production (historical summary)
- Mined as clay, then ground and washed to separate pigment particles.
- Stability & lightfastness
- Highly stable; resistant to fading and chemical change. (excellent)
Notable uses
- Prehistoric cave paintings
- Ancient Egyptian wall painting
- Traditional building and decorative paint
Sources
- Wikipedia (colour, pigment and dye history articles) — Wikimedia Foundation
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.