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Searching for the Right Color Palette: Source of Pigments of the Holocene Wadi Sura Paintings, Gilf Kebir, Western Desert (Egypt)

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Abstract

In this article, we discuss the geological, mineralogical, and geochemical characteristics of the proposed sources of pigments used in the Wadi Sura rock art, southwestern Egypt. Colors used in the paintings include white, yellow, and several reddish hues ranging from pale red to dark reddish brown, rare black, and greenish hues. The results of Raman spectroscopy and pXRF techniques on both raw coloring materials and archaeological pigments show that the ancient artists made extensive use of inorganic clay-based pigment (e.g., kaolinite) associated with anhydrite and gypsum. White raw coloring materials were recorded in the field as thin laminated beds and lenses within the Silurian sandstone bedrock and are also present in paleosol layers and reworked fragments mixed with ocher. Raw materials for red and yellow colors are represented by clay-based mixtures of aluminosilicate with iron oxide, hematite, goethite or magnetite, and gypsum. The amorphous carbon and romanechite, as well as goethite and magnetite, could have been the components of the dark brownish pigments widely used in the rock art of the study area. Surprisingly, lazurite was also recognized among the raw materials, although this blue pigment does not seem to have been used in the Wadi Sura rock art panels (however, bluish and greenish traces as violet reddish hues, along with bluish-greenish yellow colors, are reported in the paintings). Lazurite is not well known in the geology of Egypt and has been detected in this study for the first time. The results of our work indicate that access to the Silurian sandstones, mainly located on the northwestern slope of the plateau, may have been one of the factors for choosing this area of the Gilf Kebir for producing rock art images.

Résumé

Dans le présent article, nous examinons les caractéristiques géologiques, minéralogiques et géochimiques des sources de pigments qui auraient été utilisés pour les peintures de l’Oued Sura au sud-ouest de l'Égypte. Les couleurs présentes dans les peintures comprennent le blanc, le jaune et même certaines nuances de rouge, allant du rouge pâle au brun rougeâtre foncé, ainsi que de rares exemples de nuances de noir et de vert. Les résultats de la spectroscopie Raman et de fluorescence des rayons X portable sur les matières colorantes brutes et les pigments archéologiques montrent que les anciens artistes employaient généralement des matières premières de nature inorganique à base d’argile: par exemple, kaolinite associée à anhydrite et gypse. Des matières colorantes blanches ont été également détectées sur le terrain sous forme de minces couches stratifiées et de lentilles dans le substrat rocheux de grès du Silurien, et ils sont également présents dans des couches de paléosol et des fragments retravaillés et mélangés à l'ocre. Les matières colorants rouges et jaunes sont représentés par ailleurs par des mélanges d’aluminosilicates à base d’argile avec de l'oxyde de fer, de l'hématite, de la goethite ou de la magnétite et du gypse. En outre, une certaine quantité de carbone amorphe et romanèchite, avec la goethite et la magnétite, pourrait être la composante des pigments brun foncé largement employés dans l'art rupestre de cette zone archéologique. Étonnamment, parmi les matières premières, la lazurite a été identifiée, bien que ce pigment bleu ne semble pas avoir été utilisé dans les panneaux d’art rupestre de l’Oued Sura (cependant, nous avons observé des traces bleuâtres et verdâtres sous forme de nuances violet-rougeâtre, ainsi que des couleurs jaune bleu-verdâtre dans les peintures). La lazurite est mal connue dans la géologie de l'Égypte, et vient d'être détectée pour une première fois par la présente étude. Les résultats de nos travaux peuvent indiquer que l’accessibilité aux grès Siluriennes, situées principalement sur le coté nord-ouest du plateau, peut avoir été l'un des facteurs qui ont conduit à utiliser cet endroit du Gilf Kebir pour la production de l’art rupestre.

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Acknowledgments

The work presented in this article was carried out in the framework of the Archaeological and Conservation Project in the Gilf Kebir, Egypt, launched by the Egyptian-Italian Environmental Cooperation Project, and directed by B. E. Barich (at the time, the Sapienza University of Rome). The project was initiated in 2010 as a part of the wider nature- and archaeological-preservation program to establish the Gilf Kebir National Park (GKNP). Three field seasons were carried out from 2010 to 2013, with the participation of an Egyptian-Italian multidisciplinary research team. The authors wish to thank Valerian Ciobota, Nicolae Tarcea, Petra Rosch, and Jurgen Popp (Institute of Physical Chemistry, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany) for their contribution in performing the Raman analysis of the raw coloring materials of Wadi Sura area. We would also like to thank Sameh Hamed (Cairo University) for assisting with pXRF analysis, Mona Fouad (Cairo University) for her work on the study of the archaeological pigments in the field, and Tamer Ramadan (Gilf Kebir National Park) for field assistance. We would like to express our most sincere thanks to the peers who reviewed this article and to Claire Malleson for the English editing. This article is dedicated to the loving memory of Mohamed El-Serwy and Ahmed Shimie, with whom we shared the most amazing moments during our fieldwork in the Egyptian Western Desert.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation entitled: “Archaeological and Conservation Project in the Gilf Kebir, Egypt” (years 2010–2011), awarded to B. E. Barich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Mohamed A. Hamdan

  2. Institute of Heritage Science (ISPC), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Montelibretti, Rome, Italy

    Giulio Lucarini

  3. Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples L’Orientale, Naples, Italy

    Giulio Lucarini

  4. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Giulio Lucarini

  5. International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO), Rome, Italy

    Giulio Lucarini, Giuseppina Mutri & Barbara E. Barich

  6. Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, Italy

    Maria Cristina Tomassetti

  7. The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Giuseppina Mutri

  8. CSIRO Mineral Resources, Kensington, WA, Australia

    Walid Salama

  9. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt

    Safiya M. Hassan

  10. Sapienza University of Rome Foundation, Rome, Italy

    Barbara E. Barich

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  1. Mohamed A. Hamdan
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Correspondence to Barbara E. Barich.

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Hamdan, M.A., Lucarini, G., Tomassetti, M.C. et al. Searching for the Right Color Palette: Source of Pigments of the Holocene Wadi Sura Paintings, Gilf Kebir, Western Desert (Egypt). Afr Archaeol Rev 38, 25–47 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-020-09422-6

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