Egyptian blue
| Egyptian blue | |
|---|---|
 Color coordinates |
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| Hex triplet | #1034A6 |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (16, 52, 166) |
| CMYKH (c, m, y, k) | (90, 69, 0, 35) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (226°, 90%, 65%) |
| Source | Internet |
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B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred) |
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Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi4O10 or CaOCuO(SiO2)4) or cuprorivaite, is a pigment used in ancient Egypt for thousands of years. It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment. It was known to the Romans by the name caeruleum – from which the English word cerulean derives. After the Roman era, Egyptian blue fell from use and the manner of its creation was forgotten.
The ancient Egyptian word wadjet signifies blue, blue-green, and green.
The first recorded use of 'Egyptian blue' as a color name in English was in 1809.
Egyptian blue is a synthetic blue pigment made up of a mixture of silica, lime, copper, and an alkali. Its color is due to a calcium-copper tetrasilicate CaCuSi4O10 of the same composition as the naturally occurring mineral cuprorivaite. It was made in Egypt during the third millennium BC and is the first synthetic pigment produced there, continuing in use until the end of the Greco-Roman period (332 BC–395 AD).
The term for it in the Egyptian language is ḫsbḏ-ỉrjt, which means artificial lapis lazuli (hsbd). It was used in antiquity as a blue pigment to color a variety of different media such as stone, wood, plaster, papyrus, and canvas, and in the production of numerous objects, including cylinder seals, beads, scarabs, inlays, pots, and statuettes. It is also sometimes referred to in Egyptological literature as blue frit. Some have argued that this is an erroneous term that should be reserved for use to describe the initial phase of glass or glaze production, while others argue that Egyptian blue is a frit in both the fine and coarse form since it is a product of solid state reaction. Its characteristic blue color, resulting from one of its main components—copper—ranges from a light to a dark hue, depending on differential processing and composition.
Apart from Egypt, it has also been found in the Near East, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the limits of the Roman Empire. It is unclear whether the pigment's existence elsewhere was a result of parallel invention or evidence of the technology's spread from Egypt to those areas.
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