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@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---
title: "The use and experience of painting materials in ancient and modern Nubia"
authors: ["katefulcher.md"]
abstract: Homes in Nubia are decorated by their inhabitants, using materials from the landscape around them. This has been the case for thousands of years. Taking the ancient town of Amara West (c. 1250 BC--800 BC) and the modern residents of its environs as a case study, the procurementand application of painting materials and its social implications are considered, using archaeological evidence and recently conducted interviews. The ancient evidence includes paint on walls, pigments, paint palettes, grindstones, and painted coffins, samples of which were scientifically analysed to determine the pigments and binders used. Twelve interviews were conducted via translator with modern residents living near to Amara West about their use of paint in their houses, including how they collected painting materials, when painting took place, and who was responsible. Several paints were re-created using tools and materials that were used by the ancient population in order to experience the process and consider it from a sensory perspective. Taking all of this evidence as inspiration, several fictional passages have been added to attempt to imagine ancient events relating to paint making and use.
abstract: Homes in Nubia are decorated by their inhabitants, using materials from the landscape around them. This has been the case for thousands of years. Taking the ancient town of Amara West (c. 1250 BC--800 BC) and the modern residents of its environs as a case study, the procurement and application of painting materials and their social implications are considered, using archaeological evidence and recently conducted interviews. The ancient evidence includes paint on walls, pigments, paint palettes, grindstones, and painted coffins, samples of which were scientifically analysed to determine the pigments and binders used. Twelve interviews were conducted via translator with modern residents living near to Amara West about their use of paint in their houses, including how they collected painting materials, when painting took place, and who was responsible. Several paints were re-created with tools and materials that were used by the ancient population in order to experience the process and consider it from a sensory perspective. Taking all of this evidence as inspiration, several fictional passages have been added to attempt to imagine ancient events relating to paint making and use.
keywords: ["Ancient Nubia", "paint", "colour", "ethnography", "Sudan"]
---
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Ancient people used colour in their homes for many of the same reasons
as people do today -- to lighten walls, to highlight important areas, to
signal types of use of spaces, to proclaim status within the community.
The painting materials considered here are from the ancient town of
Amara West is situated between the second and third cataracts of the
Amara West, which is situated between the Second and Third cataracts of the
Nile, and was inhabited from c. 1250 to 800 BC. It was founded by
ancient Egyptians in the reign of Seti I as one of a series of temple
towns in the region, in order to control local resources.[^1]
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Excavations at Amara West were initiated by the Egypt Exploration
Society in 1939, and were revisited by the British Museum from 2008 to
2018. The EES seasons uncovered the temple and two town areas, including
a residence bearing inscriptions relating to two holders of the office
"Deputy of Kush", which indicates that the town was an administrative
"Deputy of Kush," which indicates that the town was an administrative
centre of Kush (Upper Nubia).[^2] The British Museum excavations
focussed on the ancient town and discovered evidence for the preparation
and use of paint in white, red, yellow, black, blue, and green colours.
@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ common colours were white, yellow, and red. Floors and some outside
walls were mud-plastered in a circular pattern (fig. 3).
Houses could be painted with *bomastic* (modern acrylic paint) or *gir*
(powdered rock). Before bombastic was available in the market, everyone
(powdered rock). Before bomastic was available in the market, everyone
used *gir*, which was collected from the desert. Now *gir* may also be
purchased from the market. There was some consensus that yellow and
white gir were the best to use, and that the use of colour was a fairly
@ -176,8 +176,8 @@ Girls watch and learn from their older female relatives how to do the
mud-plastering and gir. They start contributing to the mud-plastering at
about the age of 15, but the painting is easy and they could begin
younger. There was no upper age limit, the only limitation being
physical ability to take part. Using modern acrylic paints appeared to
have very little importance or social cache, they were just a useful
physical ability to participate in the work. Using modern acrylic paints appeared to
have very little importance or social cache, they were just useful
material for painting. However, mudplastering and applying *gir* was
described as more socially embedded and more gendered. This was a skill
that was passed down the generations, and had social activities attached
@ -189,9 +189,9 @@ piece of leather with the hair still attached to paint the *gir* onto
the walls, or a sheep's tail. One family poured *gir* over the walls
from a teapot.
![House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bombastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.](../static/images/fulcher/fig3.jpg "House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bombastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.")
![House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bomastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.](../static/images/fulcher/fig3.jpg "House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bomastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.")
**~~Figure 3. House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bombastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.~~**
**~~Figure 3. House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bomastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.~~**
# Re-construction of ancient painting materials
@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ obviate the need to carry a tool from the town and back.
Alongside the raw materials, a set of tools is also required. A grinding
stone of some sort is needed, and this either means sourcing a schist
rock from the desert or finding one that has been previously been used.
rock from the desert or finding one that has been previously used.
Another tool required is a hammerstone. The Nile bank at the local town
across the river (Abri) is a shingle beach from where it is a simple
task to pick up various smooth hand-sized rocks. A large stash of such
@ -257,8 +257,8 @@ West, possibly a cache of useful tools.
The most numerous paint-related finds from Amara West are ceramic
palettes that hold paint. These palettes are also known from other
ancient Egyptian sites, thus it seems that this was common practice
[^20]. Ceramic sherds would have been easy to obtain, and may even have
ancient Egyptian sites, thus it seems that this was common practice.
[^20] Ceramic sherds would have been easy to obtain, and may even have
been created for the purpose by deliberate breakage. The palettes
function better when damp because it prevents the water soaking straight
into them when it is added to the pigment powder, so they may have been
@ -350,15 +350,15 @@ directly and tangentially, and therefore social interactions. The
performance of all these actions would have been culturally regulated,
including gestures, songs, timings, and the status of the actors within
the society. This has also been noted in the decoration of the ancient
site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, and the centrality of house-based
activities for relationships has been studied in the Andes.[^21]^,^[^22]
site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey,[^21] and the centrality of house-based
activities for relationships has been studied in the Andes.[^22]
Peripheral objects and tasks to the ones focussed on here probably
included cooking food (requiring food, pots, fire, utensils), travelling
by donkey or boat, making bags or baskets, producing items to trade,
meeting and trading with other people, collecting water, minding animals
and children, and cleaning. The task of painting was part of a much
wider interconnected taskscape, the "spatiotemporal layout of activity
at a site"[^23].
at a site."[^23]
# Narratives
@ -567,10 +567,10 @@ Fulcher, Kate, Rebecca Stacey, and Neal Spencer. "Bitumen from the Dead Sea in E
Nubia." *Nature Scientific Reports* 10, no. 8309 (2020).
<https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64209-8>.
Ingold, Tim. \"The Temporality of the Landscape\", *World
Ingold, Tim. "The Temporality of the Landscape," *World
Archaeology* 25(2) (1993): pp. 152--74.
Ingold, Tim. "Taking taskscape to task" In *Forms of Dwelling 20 Years
Ingold, Tim. "Taking taskscape to task." In *Forms of Dwelling 20 Years
of Taskscapes in Archaeology* edited by Ulla Rajala and
Philip Mills, pp. 16--27. Oxford: Oxbow, 2017.
@ -587,7 +587,7 @@ Exploration Society and Amarna Trust, 2010.
Lacovara, Peter, and Alexandria Winkels.
"Malqata---The Painted Palace." In *Tracing Technoscapes: The Production
of Bronze Age Wall Paintings in the Eastern Mediterranean*, edited by
Johannes Becker, Johannes Jungfleisch and
Johannes Becker, Johannes Jungfleisch, and
Constance von Rüden, pp. 149--72. Leiden: Sidestone, 2018.
Leinaweaver, Jessaca B. "Raising the roof in the transnational Andes:
@ -654,25 +654,18 @@ ____________________________
<https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnQUQ06LWl5ygpFpxGL_Y3uMI9k7fQ?e=BtO2CH>
[^1]: Spencer, "Building on New Ground: The Foundation of a Colonial
Town at Amara West."
[^1]: Spencer, "Building on New Ground."
[^2]: Spencer, *Amara West I: The Architectural Report.
EES Excavation Memoir 63*.
[^3]: Binder, "The New Kingdom Tombs at Amara West:
Funerary Perspectives on Nubian -- Egyptian Interactions."
[^3]: Binder, "The New Kingdom Tombs at Amara West."
[^4]: Spataro, Millet, and Spencer, "The New Kingdom Settlement of Amara West
(Nubia, Sudan): Mineralogical and Chemical Investigation of the
Ceramics."
(Nubia, Sudan)."
[^5]: Spencer, "Nubian Architecture in an Egyptian Town?
Building E12.11 at Amara West."
[^5]: Spencer, "Nubian Architecture in an Egyptian Town?."
[^6]: Fulcher, *Painting Amara West: The Technology and
Experience of Colour in New Kingdom Nubia. British Museum
Publications on Egypt and Sudan 13*; Fulcher et al.,
[^6]: Fulcher, *Painting Amara West*; Fulcher et al.,
"Multi-Scale Characterization of Unusual Green and Blue Pigments
from the Pharaonic Town of Amara West, Nubia";
Fulcher, Stacey, and
@ -683,9 +676,7 @@ ____________________________
Unusual Green and Blue Pigments from the Pharaonic Town of Amara
West, Nubia."
[^8]: Fulcher, *Painting Amara West: The Technology and
Experience of Colour in New Kingdom Nubia. British Museum
Publications on Egypt and Sudan 13*, p. 43.
[^8]: Fulcher, *Painting Amara West*, p. 43.
[^9]: Fulcher, Stacey, and
Spencer, "Bitumen from the Dead Sea in Early Iron Age
@ -698,8 +689,7 @@ ____________________________
[^11]: Fulcher and Budka, "Pigments,
incense, and bitumen from Sai."
[^12]: Siddell, "Appendix 6: Analysis of Pigments from the
Gurob Ship-Cart Model**".**
[^12]: Siddell, "Appendix 6."
[^13]: Lacovara and Winkels, "Malqata: The
painted palace".
@ -716,8 +706,7 @@ ____________________________
Micromorphological Analyses"; Wenzel, *House
Decoration in Nubia*.
[^17]: Binder, "The New Kingdom Tombs at Amara West:
Funerary Perspectives on Nubian -- Egyptian Interactions," p. 604.
[^17]: Binder, "The New Kingdom Tombs at Amara West," p. 604.
[^18]: Stevens and Garnett, "Surveying the
Pharaonic Desert Hinterland of Amara West."
@ -725,26 +714,22 @@ ____________________________
[^19]: Ibid.
[^20]: Pagès-Camagna and Raue,
"Coloured Materials Used in Elephantine: Evolution and Continuity
from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period"; Kemp and
Stevens, *Busy Lives at Amarna: Excavations in the
Main City (Grid 12 and the House of Ranefer, N49.18). Volume I*.
"Coloured Materials Used in Elephantine"; Kemp and
Stevens, *Busy Lives at Amarna*.
[^21]: Çamurcuoğlu, *The Wall Paintings of Çatalhöyük
(Turkey)*, pp. 240-246.
[^22]: Leinaweaver, "Raising the roof in the transnational
Andes: building houses, forging kinship."
Andes."
[^23]: Ingold, "Taking taskscape to task" pp. 26;
Ingold, \"The Temporality of the Landscape.\"
[^23]: Ingold, "Taking taskscape to task," pp. 26;
Ingold, "The Temporality of the Landscape."
[^24]: Joyce, "Introducing the First Voice";
Majewski, "We Are All Storytellers: Comments on
Storytelling, Science, and Historical Archaeology";
Majewski, "We Are All Storytellers";
Pluciennik, "Archaeological Narratives and Other Ways
of Telling."
[^25]: Mickel, "Archaeologists as Authors and the Stories
of Sites"; Tringham, "Households with Faces: The
Challenge of Gender in Prehistoric Architectural Remains."
of Sites"; Tringham, "Households with Faces."