Investigating Color in Roman Egypt

Hello, and welcome to an exciting and colorful world! This website features work from Investigating Color in Roman Egypt, a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and headquartered at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Investigating Color in Roman Egypt

Hello, and welcome to an exciting and colorful world! This website features work from Investigating Color in Roman Egypt, a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and headquartered at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Investigating Color in Roman Egypt

Hello, and welcome to an exciting and colorful world! This website features work from Investigating Color in Roman Egypt, a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and headquartered at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Carrie Roberts positions a DSLR camera modified for multispectral imaging over a painted portrait of a woman.

Our Goals: Learning and Teaching

The project’s goals are twofold: to learn more about color in the Kelsey Museum’s world-renowned collection of Roman Egyptian objects and to provide research tools that students, faculty, and other researchers can use to explore the exciting world of color in their own museums and collections.

This website provides resources for use in teaching and learning about color (especially in the ancient Roman world), developing visual analysis and critical thinking skills, and using art and artifacts as primary sources for evidence-based research. Check out our annotated bibliographies for readings about color on sculpture, terracottas, paintings, and textiles, as well as our research workflows for studying color through the nondestructive techniques of microscopy, multispectral imaging, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. We have lists of research equipment, tips for project design and data collection, and flowcharts for pigment and dye identification. We also offer multiple case studies.

The Archaeological Sites

Many of the artifacts featured on this website come from two specific archaeological sites: Karanis, a Roman Egyptian town whose discovery has enriched our understanding of daily life in the ancient world, and Terenouthis, a vast necropolis whose painted mudbrick tombs shed light on Roman Egyptian funerary religion. The University of Michigan led expeditions to these sites in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Kelsey Museum preserves a rich collection of artifacts—many from everyday life—from these excavations. As a result, the discoveries we are making about color use in the collection can be linked to known places, people, and moments in history.

The Archaeological Sites

Many of the artifacts featured on this website come from two specific archaeological sites: Karanis, a Roman Egyptian town whose discovery has enriched our understanding of daily life in the ancient world, and Terenouthis, a vast necropolis whose painted mudbrick tombs shed light on Roman Egyptian funerary religion. The University of Michigan led expeditions to these sites in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Kelsey Museum preserves a rich collection of artifacts—many from everyday life—from these excavations. As a result, the discoveries we are making about color use in the collection can be linked to known places, people, and moments in history.

There Is Still Much to Discover About the Use of Color in the Ancient World

The study of ancient color use and the chemistry of ancient pigments and dyes is a topic that connects disciplines as diverse as anthropology and archaeology, engineering and materials science, chemistry, art conservation and art history, literature, history, language, and more. And one thing this project has taught us is that, when it comes to color in the ancient world, there is much more to discover. Whether you are a student, teacher, or researcher, we hope you will find things here that spark your curiosity, engage your imagination, and deepen your understanding of our colorful ancient past. 

There Is Still Much to Discover About the Use of Color in the Ancient World

The study of ancient color use and the chemistry of ancient pigments and dyes is a topic that connects disciplines as diverse as anthropology and archaeology, engineering and materials science, chemistry, art conservation and art history, literature, history, language, and more. And one thing this project has taught us is that, when it comes to color in the ancient world, there is much more to discover. Whether you are a student, teacher, or researcher, we hope you will find things here that spark your curiosity, engage your imagination, and deepen your understanding of our colorful ancient past.