Pigment Cultures Pigmented Commentary

Palaeolithic people archaeology

Pigment

• Red Ochre, 99,000-64,000 BCE
• At Blombos Cave in South Africa,
• people gathered and ground hematite,
• broke bones and boiled them for their fat,
• and mixed fat and powder in large abalone shells.
• We painted everything red,
• red like life and death,
• our tools, our clothes, our bodies
• life and death, birth and blood,
• to observe our births,
• and mourn our deaths.
• Yellow Ochre, 23,000-13,000 BCE
• In the caves of Spain and France
• during the Upper Palaeolithic,
• people painted animals and themselves on the walls
• using black, burnt umber, red and yellow ochres.
• We painted horses, stags, bison, and bulls,
• by blowing colors out of tubes.
• Wild and dangerous, running though our lives
• they’re also moving through our dreams.

Cultures

• Bone, shell, wood, leather, fiber, and stone—
• religion, culture, music (drums, flutes), art,
• tools, mining, manufacture, and trade.
• Oldowan, Madrasian, Soanian, Acheulean, and Clactonian,
• Mousterian, Aterian, and Micoquien,
• Emiran, Bohunician, Ahmarian, Chätelperronian,
• Lincombian-Ranisian-Jermanowician,
• Aurignacian, Khormusan, Baradostian,
• Périgordian, Gravettian, Antelian,
• Mal’ta-Buret’, Solutrean, Halfan,
• Afontova Gora, Epigravettian, Zarzian,
• Iberomaurusian, Kebaran, Magdalenian, Trialetian,
• Hamburg, Eburran, Qadan, Sebilian, Natufian,
• Federmesser, Ahrensberg, and Swiderian.
• Let’s not be deceived by our distance from these people.
• They were clearly as intelligent and interesting as us
• and possibly more diverse.

Pigmented

• The soul is only a blend of colors—
• white for purity, peace, and death,
• red for blood, war, and valor,
• blue for sincerity and happiness,
• yellow for happiness,
• green for growth and abundance,
• purple for reverence and nature,
• and black for power.
• Because everything today has color—
• Hello Kitty, Sherwin Williams, Fruit Loops—
• one may not realize its power.
• Colors themselves move the soul
• to paint everything else in their light.