Red ochre
Red ochre and
yellow ochre (pronounced //, from the
Greek ochros, yellow) are
pigments made from naturally tinted
clay. It has been used worldwide since prehistoric times. Chemically, it is hydrated
iron (III) oxide.
Ochres are
non-toxic, and can be used to make an oil paint that dries quickly and covers surfaces thoroughly. Many people believe that the best ochre comes from the area of
Roussillon,
France.
To manufacture ground ochre, ochre clay is first mined from the ground. It is then washed in order to separate sand from ochre, which can be done by hand. The remaining ochre is then dried in the sun and sometimes burned to enhance the natural color.
Ochre was one of the first pigments to be used by human beings. Pieces of hematite, worn down as though they had been used as
crayons, have been found at 300,000 year old
Homo heidelbergensis sites in
France and
Czechoslovakia.
Neandertal burial sites sometimes include ochre as a
grave good. The oldest evidence of
mining activity, at the "Lion Cave" in
Swaziland, is a 43,000 year old ochre mine. In Germanic rune lore, red ochre was often used in place of blood to redden, or tint, the runes and thereby instilling the spirit of life into the rune, enabling it to be used for magical purposes.
The clay used to produce red ochre is thought to be the "red earth" from which God created Adam in the Book of Genesis. In fact, the entymology of the name "Adam" is ancient Hebrew for "man of red earth." Red ochre can be found in great quantities in the mountains rimming the river basin where archeologists place the biblical
Garden of Eden, now in modern day
Iraq. For the early writers of the Christian Bible, one can imagine the vibrant red color of this natural clay evoking the color of human blood.
Ochre was a popular coloring in France during the time of the
French Empire, and many French citizens living in foreign colonies would import a great deal of ochre clay from France to make their new lands feel like home. As a result, after the period of French colonization ended ochre became associated with repression and fell out of favour. With the advent of
synthetic dyes, ochre mining nearly stopped altogether. Recently, however, natural ochre paint has seen something of a comeback as an upscale housepaint option.
Ochre was commonly used as a pigment by many native peoples. In
Newfoundland its use is most often associated with the
Beothuk whereby they were referred to as the Red Indians by the first Europeans to
Newfoundland. It was also used by the
Maritime Archaic as evidenced by its discovery in the graves of over 100 individuals during an archeological excavation at
Port au Choix.
*
clay earth pigment*
List of colors*
Goethite, or brown ochre
*
Red Ochre and
Yellow ochre, from
Pigments through the ages.
*
A recipe for red ochre paint.
* Fuller, Carl;
Natural Colored Iron Oxide Pigments, pp. 281-6. In: Pigment Handbook, 2nd Edition. Lewis, P. (ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1988.
* Thomas, Anne Wall.
Colors From the Earth, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980.
