Alexandra Rodler receives ERC Grant

Fascination with colour

Like the present, the ancient world was fascinated by colour. Early on, people used natural materials as pigments to colour architectural elements, works of art or even everyday objects and utensils. Unlike dyes, pigments are practically insoluble in solution and are suspended as solid particles.

Origin and processing of pigments

Some materials used to make pigments were precious and may have been traded over long distances, others were widely available. Yet little is known about where these materials came from and where they were processed. Not only the nodes along the way from mine to artwork are still in the dark, but also the sources of pigment raw materials. This is remarkable because certain materials were used consistently and over long periods of time, which could indicate standardised production and procurement patterns. Moreover, ancient writers mention a preference for specific materials from specific regions.

New approach within archaeology

The Project „COLOR IN A NEW LIGHT - Origins, Trade and Cultural Significance of Ancient Pigments” (HUE) by Alexandra Rodler pursues an important new approach in archaeology: the analysis of the origins and production technologies of pigments are expected to deepen our understanding of cultural and technological change and connections through trade.

For this purpose, a pigment-specific reference database and analytical tools will be established with this project for evaluating the origin of pigments that were widespread in the Greco-Roman world, both spatially and temporally. These include both common and rare as well as barely processed pigments (ochre, cinnabar, orpiment) and highly processed multi-component pigments (lead pigments, Egyptian blue). The reference database and toolset will be tested for sites in central Italy, western Turkey and Aegean islands within a narrow time window (1^st century BC – 1^st century AD) for several important nodes of the ancient pigment industry as well as for an extended time frame up to 1300 BC. The study examines how de-/centralized and dis-/connected the trade in pigments for readily available and expensive materials was and how this was organised at the intersection of different pyrotechnologies.

Project goals

The goals of this project include developing a comprehensive approach to assessing the origin of raw materials, trade and technological developments of pigments in antiquity and with this, the significance of colour in cultural contexts. At its core, this project develops an open access database and uses the collected data to evaluate pigments as carriers of cultural information as well as for the visualisation of colour networks.

About the researcher
Alexandra Rodler studied Geology-Geoscience and received her PhD from the University of Copenhagen in 2016. In 2016, she joined the Polychromy Research Group at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Then in 2018, the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, and in 2019 the AMGC research group at Free University of Brussels. In 2020, she  joined the research group »Object itineraries« at the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the OeAW with a MSCA fellowship. Her research focuses on the origin, use and significance of colourants in the human past.
 

The European Research Council – ERC is a funding body for top-level, open-topic research, which now enjoys an international reputation for the excellent and often groundbreaking results of the projects it funds. The ERC Starting Grant supports excellent scientists at an early stage of their career on their way to scientific independence. An important step is often the establishment of the first own research group. To this end, they are provided with funding of a maximum of 2.5 million euros over a period of five years. The doctorate of the applicant, the so-called Principal Investigator, must have been completed between two and seven years ago in the year of application. In exceptional cases, this time window can be extended.