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Red, black or white| The dawn of colour symbolism
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In this paper the use of the pigments in the Paleolithic is presented, and some ideas of the symbolic meaning of colours are suggested.
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Documenta Praehistorica XXXIII (2006)
Red, black or white|The dawn of colour symbolism
Simona Petru
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, SI
simona.petru@ff.uni-lj.si
Introduction
Why do three colours – white, black and red – havean outstanding position in the palette of the first ar-tists? It is interesting that two of these, white andblack are not ’real chromatic colours’ with fixed wavelengths, but more expressions of light and dark-ness. And yet their names are the first in the evolu-tion of basic colour terms and they exist in all langu-ages (
Berlin & Kay 1999
). So white and black basi-cally express what colour really is – our perceptionof light (white) or the absence of light (black). In Pa-laeolithic art some images could be the expressionof a white and black colour scheme, like the blackpaintings on the white wall from the ’Salon Noir’ inthe Niaux cave (Fig. 1). Marshack found combinati-ons of these two colours on the engraved mammothivory from the Russian plain. The engravings werefilled with thick black paste, so the images appearedblack against the white background of the ivory (
Marshack 1981.189
).Red is the first ’real’ colour with a defined wave-length. It is the third term that emerges in languageafter white and black. In languages with only a few terms for colours, the term red includes many hues, which means that it includes all reds, oranges, most yellows, browns, pinks and purples. Separate namesfor these colours and for other colours like blue andgreen evolve later (
Berlin & Kay 1999
). The variety of names for colour also depends on the environ-ment in which people are living, or on their main ac-tivity. The Damara people of Namibia have many names for the colours of livestock, since they areherders, but they lack names for green and blue,since they are not interested in them at all (
Berlinand Kay 1999, with citations
).The visual and auditory senses are important forthe human perception of surroundings. Colour andsound are both wave phenomena: colours are electro-magnetic, while sounds are mechanical waves. Assuch, they have different wavelengths and differentenergies. Both influence our feelings. With some co-lours we have the impression of energy, while otherscalm us down; the same applies to sound. Speaking
ABSTRACT –
In this paper the use of the pigments in the Paleolithic is presented, and some ideas of the symbolic meaning of colours are suggested. The colour red might have been a symbol of transfor- mation, and as such, it was used in burials and for painting the Venus figurines. In the Slovenian Paleolithic, there is scant evidence of importance of colour and only a few finds of stones used for the grinding of the red pigment have been found.
IZVLE∞EK –
V ≠lanku je predstavljena uporaba barvil v paleolitiku in poskus interpretacije njihove- ga simboli≠nega pomena. Ta je najbolj o≠iten pri rde≠i barvi, ki je morda bila simbol transformacije, kar se odra∫a v njeni uporabi pri pokopih in pri barvanju ∫enskih figur. V slovenskih paleolitskihnajdi∏≠ih je le malo sledi obdelave pigmentov, tolka≠i, s katerimi so drobili rde≠ pigment, so znani le iz treh jam.
KEY WORDS –
pigments; ochre; Paleolithic; burials; Venus figurines; Slovenia
© 2006 Oddelek za arheologijo, Filozofska fakulteta - Univerza v Ljubljani, SI
Simona Petru
204
produces sounds. So notonly words express our fe-elings, but also the sound of speaking itself. Different voi-ces make different impres-sions on us. Some peoplehave pleasant voices, and we react positively to them, while others may provokenegative feelings. So we com-municate with sound, as wellas with words, and we alsocommunicate our feelingsthrough colours. If talk andlanguage are a form of socialgrooming, since they influence our feelings (
Dun- bar 2004.114
), then sound and colour are a type of grooming also. If elaborated speech emerged withmodern humans, then improved communicationthrough colour is also probably part of modern hu-man behaviour. Refined art as an expression of fe-elings and as a bearer of information was possible when humans were capable of forming complexcommunication systems to transfer their feelingsand information to others. Only in such systems wasthere a possibility for the perception of colours assymbols. Symbols strongly influence our feelings, justas colour does. So colours have the potential to be very powerful symbols.It is difficult to imagine how much colour in the Pa-laeolithic was perceived as colour per se and how much as an essential part of a depicted object – sored might mean red ochre, not just a red hue. Eventoday in some languages the names for different co-lours are the same as the names for objects whichare of that colour. In the language of the Ndembupeople in Congo word
amatamba
that means ‘wa-ter of sweet potato’ leaves is used for green colour.The Aborigines in Queensland use the same word
o˘ti
for blood and red colour (
Berlin & Kay, withcitations 1999
).The first colorants are known from Old Palaeolithiccontexts, and in some cases there are indices thatthey were used for colouring different objects. Bedna-rik (
2003
) claims that the naturally formed 400000 years old Tan-Tan figure was artificially modified andcoated with red paint. At the Zambian site of Twin Ri- vers the use of ochre was known at least 200000 years ago. Minerals for the production of pigments were systematically collected and used (
Barham 2002
). In the Middle Palaeolithic, pigments becameeven more frequent. A review of the pigments foundduring the excavations of Bordes indicated that blackand red were often present in French Mousterian(
Demars 1992
). In the Mousterian site of Tata a mammoth molar plaque was covered with red ochre(
Marshack 1981.189
). But it was in the Upper Pa-laeolithic that colorants became ubiquitous, andtheir power was expressed and preserved throughart and in graves.Black and red are quite common in Palaeolithic art, while white is almost completely absent at firstsight. But it should not be forgotten that the wallson which images are depicted are frequently white. Artists produced white hues by leaving areas of limestone wall blank, or they even scraped the dustoff the wall surface to create an area of white. In thepainting of the ‘Chinese horse’ at Lascaux (Fig. 2),blank wall represents the unpainted white under-belly of the horse (
Marshack 2003
). That white pig-ments were used was confirmed in the Magdaleniancave of Bedeilhac, where a white clay plaquette wasfound. It was used as a crayon to colour animal hideor human skin (
Marshack 2003
). It is also possiblethat white paint was frequently used, but since it was less durable than other colours it was not pre-served. Such is the case with the San paintings atRose Cottage Cave and from other South Africansites, where the parts of the paintings which werecoloured white disappeared with time (
Williamson 2000.755; Lewis-Williams 2002.146
).Only mineral colours are preserved for a long time, which could be the reason there is such a scarcity of colour in Palaeolithic art. There might be coloursmade from organic material extracted from plantsor animals, but such material does not survive overthe course of thousands of years. Another problemis that the extraction of plant pigments like green orblue is complicated, and the plants which could be
Fig. 1. Ibex from Niaux (from
Graziosi 1956.Tav. 198
). Black and white painting.
Red, black or white| The dawn of colour symbolism
205
used in the process grow mostly in tropical areas(
Couraud 1983.107; 1988.20
). The only organic pig-ment preserved is charcoal, which was used for blackcolouration. Manganese oxides were also used forblack colouration. These oxides can be found on the walls of limestone caves as a product of alteration(
Clottes et al. 1990.178
).Red pigments were produced from iron oxides, likehematite or limonite, and from ochre. Hematite wasthe most frequently used mineral. It occurs in theform of aggregates of small red crystals, or in theform of bigger black crystals, which are difficult tocrush (
Clottes et al. 1990
). White was obtained mo-stly from kaolinite or illite.Pigments were mixed together with other compo-nents to obtain colours. Extenders were added for a many reasons – to economize the consumption of pigment or to improve colour characteristics, suchas different shades, adhesion and durability. Investi-gations in the Ariège region in France indicated thatin some cases feldspar was used as an extender, while in others biotite or talc was used. Different re-cipes for the preparation of colour were known, andresearch of portable art from well-dated contexts inthis region indicated that recipes could be chronolo-gically defined. But it is also possible that the use of recipes depended on the season, the social occasionor ritual, in which case they might have had symbo-lic meanings (
Clottes et al. 1990
). Pigments them-selves might also have had supernatural powers inPalaeolithic, as they had for the San people of South Africa. In San society, the transformation of the pig-ment into paint was accompanied by ritual proce-dures (
Lewis-Williams 2002.255
)Sometimes different materials, such as blood, egg white or urine were added to colorants as binding.In the Rose Cottage Cave in South Africa, the pig-ments of San paintings were examined, and blood was detected as binding. It was mixed with yellow ochre, but not with red colorants. This might hadsymbolic meaning – yellow, that lacked the appear-ance of blood, needed additional ‘power’, so they mixed it with blood, while red was already powerfulenough (
Williamson 2000
). Human blood protein was also a constituent of red pigment in two Austra-lian caves dated to late Pleistocene. Art motifs inthose caves consist of hand stencils and panels cove-red with red pigment. It is interesting that even inthe recent past human blood was often used in Au-stralian Aboriginal ritual activities (
Loy et al. 1990
).In France, experiments were carried out to deter-mine the possible binding materials in Palaeolithicpaintings. As Couraud found, organic substances wereunsuitable, and the best binding agent was water, es-pecially cave water rich in calcite, since it fixes andconserves pigments on the wall (
Couraud 1988.23
).In some cases manganese was burnt and used forblack pigment. Burning might have had practical useto facilitate the making of the pigment powder, butit might have had also symbolic and even ritual as-pect. The same might be true for the burning of ochre and hematite. With burning, the colour of ochre changes from yellow to different hues of redor to violet (
Leroi-Gourhan 1968.69
). The burningof ochre might have already been known in the OldPalaeolithic site of Terra Amata, where pieces of ochre of various colours from yellow and red tobrown were found (
Groenen 1991.14, with citati- ons
). Fire played important role in Paleolithic ritu-als, which is confirmed in Central and Eastern Eu-rope, where clay was burnt to make figurines usedin rituals (
Guineau et al. 2001.222
). Perhaps theearly modern humans at Qafzeh cave were already burning yellow goethite to transform it into red he-matite – fire was used intentionally to change the yellow colour to red (
Hovers et al. 2003.502
). Pos-sibly the transformation of a yellow stone to a redone was viewed as magical (
Vreschner 1980.632
).
Fig. 2. ’Chinese horse’ from Lascaux (from
Graziosi 1956.Tav. 182
). Three colour scheme painting.
Simona Petru
206
Fire also had important symbolic meaning; it wasthe agent of transformation. In times of cold andharsh weather, fire was indispensable, since it chan-ged cold into warmth. If ochre is treated with fire, itis transformed and it changes colour. If clay is burnt,it changes its structure and hardness. That is prob-ably why red was so important, since it was the sym-bolic colour of fire and transformation. As a symbol of transformation red ochre is present ingraves. Death is the ultimate transformation knownto human beings. Ochre was used in funeral rites,probably because it passes through a powerful colourtransformation when burnt. Together with the white-ness of bones and the blackness of the grave, red was part of the mighty tricolour scheme which sym-bolised death. As a symbol of fire, red ochre mighthave been sprinkled over a cold dead body to warmit up and to restore life. The early co-occurrence of the use of fire, burials and ochre is known from Qaf-zeh Cave in 90000 to 100000 years old layers, wherethe skeletal remains and burials of the first early modern humans in the Levant were found (
Hoverset al. 2003.508
). Hovers et al argue that ochre wasselected and mined for its colour, rather than for any other property. The specific hues of red had been de-sired. The symbolic use of ochre is suggested ratherthan practical (
Hovers et al. 2003
). The findingsfrom Qafzeh cave are the only certain evidence of the relation between ochre and human skeletons inMiddle Palaeolithic contexts, while in the Upper Pa-laeolithic, ochre becomes more frequent grave good(
Riel-Salvatore & Clark 2001.454–457
). It was im-portant in mortuary rites and was present in almosthalf of the known burials (
Groenen 1991.18
).Two interesting burials of children sprinkled withochre are from Lagar Velho in Portugal and fromKrems in Austria. In Lagar Velho a 25000 years oldburial of a child who exhibits a mix of early Modernhuman and Neanderthal features was found. Thefour years old child was covered with red ochre andlaid on a bed of burnt vegetation together with pier-ced teeth and marine shells (
Trinkaus & Duarte 2003.32
). The burial of two newborn children wasfound recently in Krems, Austria. The children weresprinkled with ochre and wrapped in skin, together with a necklace of mammoth ivory. The 27000 yearsold grave was covered with a mammoth shoulderblade. Besides the ochre, there were also other colo-rants found at the site: red chalk, graphite and mu-schelkalk – a type of limestone which was used forthe production of white pigment (
Einwögerer 2005
).In the Upper Palaeolithic, there was also a power-ful symbolic relation between ochre and femininity (
Groenen 1991.24
). Many Palaeolithic venus figuri-nes were painted with red ochre or hematite. The Venus from Mauern is completely covered with a thick layer of ochre (
Mussi 1997
), ochre was alsofound on the Venuses from the Grimaldi Caves (
Bis- son & Bolduc 1994
), and on two of the most famous Venuses – from Willendorf and Laussel (
Bahn 1998.75
). Red colour on the female body could also havebeen a symbol of transformation. There is a notice-able transformation of the female body during pre-gnancy, which ends with the delivery of the new life. A male body never experiences such a drasticchange. The concept of transformation is even moreexpressed in the Venus figurine from Dolní V
ě
sto-nice, which is made from clay. The figurine wastransformed, as it passed through fire, from a softpiece of clay into something solid and lasting. It isinteresting that in San societies, the preparation of pigment was associated with women. It was a wo-man who had to heat the pigment at full moon until
Fig. 3. Grinding stones with traces of ochre: 1. Ciganska jama, 2. Lukenjska jama, 3. Polj∏i∏ka cerkev.
123
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