Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:42:24.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Meaning had Colour in Early Societies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

John Gage
John Gage
Affiliation:
Department of Architecture and History of Art, 1–5 Scroope Terrace, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 IPX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Colour is one of the most prominent features of human experience, but has often been ignored or overlooked in archaeological research. All practising archaeologists are aware of the colour of the materials which they handle — be they stone artefacts, painted pots, prehistoric monuments (frontispiece) or historical buildings. Yet all too frequently these items are robbed of their colour when they are published as black and white photos, abstract plans or reductionist line drawings. Equally discouraging is the fact that original colours are frequently missing or faded, removed by the passage of centuries. We know, for example, that the famous marble Cycladic figurines were originally brightly painted, but few traces of colouring survive. Yet such traces are enough to alert us to the radical transformation which colour could bring to old and faded remains.

In this Viewpoint feature we have invited a range of specialists to consider the meaning of colour in early societies. The intention has been to focus on those societies where evidence of colour is not so readily apparent. Egyptian art and Palaeolithic caves have their place in this debate, but we are also interested in the selection of stones of particular colours for tools or structures, and for the use of colour in textiles; areas in which almost all early societies must have been engaged.

The meaning of colour may be approached at a variety of levels. In literate societies, or those with a rich and detailed iconographic tradition, it may be possible to explore the particular significance of different colours in myths or rituals. Such understanding is more difficult in the case of prehistoric societies, yet even here we can gain some insight into colour symbolism by careful consideration of context, or by cautious appeal to common human experience. Context may suggest that red ochre in burials equates with blood, common experience that yellow is associated with the sun, and blue with the sky or the sea. The value accorded to particular colours can also be indicated by the workmanship and finish which objects received, and the distances that materials travelled: polished jadeite from the Alps to Scotland, or lapis lazuli from Afghanistan to Mesopotamia.

As the following articles demonstrate, all societies are concerned about colour, and such concern can be traced back to at least the Upper Palaeolithic, if not before. To what extent particular colours, such as red or black, have cross-cultural significance, is an altogether more difficult question. Colour awareness and colour sensitivity must however be an integral part of any archaeological analysis concerned with the development and nature of human cognition.

Type
Viewpoint
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , April 1999 , pp. 109 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, J. & O'Connell, J. (eds.), 1995. Transitions: Pleistocene to Holocene in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Antiquity 69 (Special Number 265).Google Scholar
Alpher, B., 1991. Yir-Yoront Lexicon: Sketch and Dictionary of an Australian Language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aston, B., Harrell, J. & Shaw, I., in press. Stone, in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, eds. Nicholson, P. & Shaw, I.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Aufrère, S., 1991. L'univers minéral dans la pensée égyptienne. 2 vols. Cairo: Institut français d'Archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Bahn, P.G. & Vertut, J., 1997. Journey TJiroitgh the Ice Age. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Google Scholar
Baines, J., 1985. Color terminology and color classification: ancient Egyptian color terminology and polychromy. American Anthropologist 87, 282–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O., 1998. On the nature of transitions: the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Revolution. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8(2), 141–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, E.J.W., 1991. Prehistoric Textiles. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, E.J.W., 1992. The Peplos of Athena, in Goddess and Polis: the Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens, ed. Neils, J.. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 102–17.Google Scholar
Barber, E.J.W., 1994. Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years. New York (NY): W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Barber, E.J.W., 1999. The Mummies of Üriimchi. New York (NY): W.W. Norton; London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bednarik, R., 1997. The role of Pleistocene beads in documenting hominid cognition. Rock Art Research 14(1), 27–41.Google Scholar
Berlin, B. & Kay, P., 1969. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Borchardt, L., 1910. Das Grabdenkmal des Königs S'a3/liu-Reé, vol. 1: Der Bau. (Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Abusir 1902–1908, VI.) Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs.Google Scholar
Bosanquet, R.C., 1902–1903. Excavations at Palaikastro II: 1–4. Annual of the British School at Athens 9, 274–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R., 1998. The Significance of Monuments. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brunner-Traut, E., 1977. Farben, in Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 2, eds. Helck, W. & Westendorf, W.. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, cols. 117–28.Google Scholar
Chase, P. & Dibble, H., 1987. Middle Paleolithic symbolism: a review of current evidence and interpretations. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 6, 263–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, G., 1986. Symbols of Excellence: Precious Materials as Expressions of Status. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, S. & Engelbach, R., 1930. Ancient Egyptian Masonry. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clottes, J., 1998. The ‘Three Cs': fresh avenues towards European Palaeolithic art, in Tlte Archaeology of Rock Art, eds. Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 112–29.Google Scholar
Collins, D., 1912. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, with Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, etc. of the Native Inhabitants of the Country (1798). Edited by Collier, J.. Christchurch, NZ.Google Scholar
Cooney, G., forthcoming. The Irish Neolithic. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cumberpatch, C., 1997. Towards a phenomenological approach to the study of medieval pottery, in Not So Much a Pot, More a Way of Life, eds. Cumberpatch, C. & Blinkhorn, P.. (Oxbow Monograph 83.) Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Darvill, T., 1997. Billown Neolithic Landscape Project, Isle of Man, Third Report: 1997. (Sciences Research Report 4.) Bournemouth: Bournemouth University School of Conservation.Google Scholar
Davidson, I. & Noble, W., 1989. The archaeology of language origins — a review. Antiquity 65, 39–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vries, J., 1965. Rood-wit-zwart, in Kleine Schriften. Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dissanayake, E., 1995a. Chimera, spandrel, or adaptation: conceptualizing art in human evolution. Human Nature 6(2), 99–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dissanayake, E., 1995b. Homo Aeslheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why. Seattle (WA): University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, R.M.W. & Blake, B.J. (eds.), 1979–1991. The Handbook of Australian Languages. Canberra-Melbourne: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Douglas, M., 1967. Natural Symbols. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Douglas, W.H., 1976. Vie Aboriginal Languages of the South West of Australia. 2nd edition. Canberra.Google Scholar
Duff, A.I., Clark, G.A. & Chadderdon, T.J., 1992. Symbolism in the early Palaeolithic: a conceptual Odyssey. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2(2), 211–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DuQuesne, T., 1996. Black and Gold God: Colour Symbolism of the God Anubis with Observations on the Phenomenology of Colour in Egyptian and Comparative Religion. (Oxfordshire Communications in Egyptology V.) London: Darengo Publications.Google Scholar
Edwards, I.E.S., 1993. The Pyramids of Egypt. 4th edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Edwards, R., 1976. Art of Arnhem Land. Art and Australia 13/3, 260–71.Google Scholar
Gage, J., 1993. Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Gage, J., 1999. Colour and Meaning: Art, Science and Symbolism. London.Google Scholar
Gloye, E.E., 1957–1958. Why are there primary colours? Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 16.Google Scholar
Gombrich, E., 1977. Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. Oxford: Phaidon.Google Scholar
Harris, J.R., 1961. Lexicographical Studies in Ancient Egyptian Minerals. (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Orientforschung 54.) Berlin: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Harrold, F.B., 1980. A comparative analysis of Eurasian palaeolithic burials. World Archaeology 12(2), 195–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmeier, J.K., 1993. The use of basalt in floors of Old Kingdom Pyramid temples. Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt 30, 117–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, A., forthcoming. Local Colour: the Significance of Colour in Megalithic Architecture.Google Scholar
Jones, R., 1990. Hunters of the Dreaming: some ideational economic and ecological parameters of the Australian Aboriginal productive system, in Pacific Production Systems: Approaches to Economic Prehistory, eds. Yen, D. & Mummery, J.. Canberra: Australian National University, 25–52.Google Scholar
Jones, R. & Meehan, B., 1978. Anbarra concept of colour, in Australian Aboriginal Concepts, ed. Hiatt, L.R.. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 20–39.Google Scholar
Jones, R. & White, N., 1988. Point blank: stone tool manufacture at the Ngilipitj Quarry, Arnhem Land, 1981, in Archaeology with Ethnography: an Australian Perspective, eds. Meehan, B. & Jones, R.. Canberra: Highland Press, 51–87.Google Scholar
Kay, P. & McDaniel, C., 1978. The linguistic significance of the meanings of basic colour terms. Language 54, 610–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kees, H., 1943. Farbensymbolik in ägyptischen religiösen Texten. Nachrichten von der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, philologisch-historische Klasse 1943(11), 413–79.Google Scholar
Kemp, M., 1985. Yellow, red and blue: the limits of colour science in painting, 1400–1730, in The Natural Sciences and the Arts, ed. Ellenius, A.. (Acta Universita-tis Upsaliensis 22.) Uppsala: Almqvuist & Wiksell International, 90–105.Google Scholar
Knight, C., Powers, C. & Watts, I., 1995. The human symbolic revolution: a Darwinian account. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 5(1), 75–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozloff, A.P. & Bryan, B.M., 1992. Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenholep III and his World. (Exhibition catalogue, the Cleveland Museum.) Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Lacau, P. & Chevrier, H., 1977. Une Chapelle d'Hatshepsout à Karnak. Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale.Google Scholar
Le Fur, D., 1990. Les pigments dans la peinture égyptienne, in Pigments et Colorants de l'Antiquité et du Moyen Age. Paris: CNRS, 181–8.Google Scholar
Lehner, M., 1997. The Complete Pyramids. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Lindly, J.M. & Clark, G.A., 1990. Symbolism and modern human origins. Current Anthropology 31(3), 233–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, A. & Harris, J., 1962. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. 4th edition. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Lynch, F., 1998. Colour in prehistoric architecture, in Prehistoric Ritual and Religion, eds. Gibson, A. & Simpson, D.. Stroud: Sutton, 62–8.Google Scholar
McGarry, K., 1997. The Relationship Between Cultural Crisis and Material Culture Creativity Among the Ontario Iroquois, c. 1530–1650 AD. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Trent University, Peterborough.Google Scholar
Maier, C. & Suntrup, R., 1987. Zum Lexikon der Farbenbedeutungen im Mittelalter. Einfuehrung zu Gegenstand und Methode, sowie Probeartikel aus dem Farbenbereich ‘Rot’. Frühmittelalterlichen Studien 21, 409–63.Google Scholar
Mallam, R.C., 1982. Ideology from the earth: effigy mounds in the midwest. Archaeology 35(4), 60–64.Google Scholar
Manniche, L., 1978. The complexion of Queen Ahmosi Nefertere. Acta Orientalia 40, 11–20.Google Scholar
Manniche, L., 1982. The body colours of gods and men in inlaid jewellery and related objects from the Tomb of Tutankhamun. Ada Orientalia 43, 5–12.Google Scholar
Marinatos, N., 1984. Art and Religion in Thera. Athens: Mathioulakis.Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1972. The Roots of Civilization: the Cognitive Beginnings of Man's First Art, Symbol and Notation. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Mellars, P., 1989. Major issues in the emergence of modern humans. Current Anthropology 30(3), 349–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P., 1991. Cognitive changes and the emergence of modern humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1(1), 63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meskell, L., 1998. An archaeology of social relations in an Egyptian village. Journal of Archaeological Method and Tlieory 5(3), 209–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D., 1985. Artefacts as Categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, F., 1992. Notes on some non-local cobbles at the entrances to the passage graves at Newgrange and Knowth, Co. Meath. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 122, 128–45.Google Scholar
Morphy, H., 1991. Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. Chicago (IL): The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Morphy, H., 1992. From dull to brilliant: the aesthetics of spiritual power among the Yolungu, in Anthropology, Art and Aesthetics, eds. Coote, J. & Shelton, A.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 181–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moser, H., 1885. A travers l'Asie centrale. Paris: Librairie Pion.Google Scholar
Mudrooroo, Nyoongah, 1994. Aboriginal Mythology: an A-Z Spanning the History of the Australian Aboriginal People from the Earliest Legends to the Present Day. London: Aquarian.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J., 1976. Creativity in the Aboriginal past. Art and Australia 13/3, 246–52.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S., 1995. Carpenter's Gap Rocksheiter, vol. 1: 40,000 years of Aboriginal occupation in the Napier Ranges, Kimberley, WA. Australian Archaeology 40, 58–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakley, K.P., 1972. Man the Tool-maker. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Osborne, C.R., 1974. Tlte Tiwi Language. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Osborne, H.F., 1916. Men of the Old Stone Age: their Environment, Life and Art. New York (NY): Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, J.E., 1982. The Creative Explosion: an Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pinch, G., 1994. Magic in Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Reese, D.S., 1980. Industrial exploitation of Murex shells. Libyan Studies 11, 79–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reuterswärd, P., 1958. Studien zur Polychromie der Plastik, vol. 1: Ägypten. (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholm Studies in the History of Art, vol. 3, sec. 1.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Ritner, R.K., 1993. Tlie Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice. (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 54.) Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Roberts, R., Jones, R., & Smith, M.A., 1990. Thermoluminescence dating of a 50,000-year old human occupation site in northern Australia. Nature 345, 153–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, R., Jones, R., & Smith, M.A., 1993. Optical dating at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory, indicates human occupation between 53,000 and 60,000 years ago. Australian Archaeology 37, 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosch, E., 1973. Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology 4, 328–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schäfer, H., 1974. Principles of Egyptian Art. Trans, by Baines, J.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Schenkel, W., 1963. Die Farben in ägyptischer Kunst und Sprache. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 88, 131–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheridan, A., 1986. Megaliths and megalomania; an account and interpretation of the development of passage tombs in Ireland. Journal of Irish Archaeology 3, 17–30.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., 1983. An analysis of Dorset art in relation to prehistoric culture stress. Éttides/Inuit Studies 7(1), 41–65.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., 1989. From Rainbow Serpents to ‘X-ray’ Fish: the Nature of the Recent Rock Painting Tradition of Western Arnhem Land, Australia. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., 1991. The power of stone: symbolic aspects of stone use and tool development in western Arnhem Land, Australia. Antiquity 65, 192–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., 1994. Socialising landscapes: the long-term implications of signs, symbols and marks on the land. Archaeology in Oceania 29(3), 117–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., 1996. Indigenous modernism: betwixt and between or at the cutting edge of contemporary art? COMA, Bulletin of the Conference of Museum Anthropologists 27, 33–55.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., Wilson, M. & Chippindale, C., 1996. Birth of the Rainbow Serpent in Arnhem Land rock art and oral history. Archaeology in Oceania 31(3), 103–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, L., 1987. ‘The Same but Different': Social Reproduction and Innovation in the Art of the Kunwinjku of Western Arnhem Land. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, The Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Taylor, L., 1990. The Rainbow Serpent as visual metaphor in western Arnhem Land. Oceania 60(4), 329–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theophrastus, 1965. De Lapidibus. Ed. & trans, by Eichhotlz, D.E.. Oxford.Google Scholar
Theroux, A., 1994. The Primary Colours. New York (NY): Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Thome, A.G., 1971. Mungo and Kow Swamp: morphological variation in Pleistocene Australians. Mankind 8(2), 85–9.Google Scholar
Thome, A.G., 1975. Kow Swamp and Lake Mungo. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney.Google Scholar
Till, W.C., 1959. Die Farbenbezeichnungen im Koptischen. Analecta Biblica: Oriens Antiquus 12, 331–42.Google Scholar
Troy, J., 1990. Australian Aboriginal Contact with the English Language in New South Wales, 1788–1845. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Tuchman, B.W., 1978. A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous Ulli Century. New York (NY): Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Turner, V., 1967. Tlie Forest of Symbols. Ithaca NY): Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wyler, S., 1992. Colour and Language: Colour Terms in English. Tübingen: G. Narr.Google Scholar