© Laboratoire d'Anthropologie, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine Nord, UMR 6569, 2002
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Egyptian blue
From earliest times the Egyptians sought to imitate the blue of lapis lazuli in their paintings. Around 2600 BC, they succeeded in synthesizing a blue pigment composed of copper, natron, and calcareous sand. The manufacturing technique used to produce this pigment was described by the Latin authors Pliny and Vitruvius. Prehistorian Gerard Onoratini, a CNRS researcher, managed to reconstruct this synthesis, which he describes here in complete detail.
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