Conference Review: Archaeological Pigments Session at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA)

by Roxanne Radpour, Associate Editor of Archaeological Pigments

From January 2-5, 2020, the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was held in Washington, D.C. One of our editors, Roxanne Radpour, was able to present at the meeting while attending two special sessions addressing ancient painting materials and technologies, conservation, and materials analysis: (1) Behind the Scenes: Choice, Pigment and Materiality in the Ancient world [Session 4F], and (2) Examining Color through the Lens of Materials Analysis [Session 5J]. In the first session, exciting presentations were delivered on the reverse engineering and synthesis of important ancient synthetic pigments such as Egyptian blue, Chinese blue, and cobalt blue; the use of pigments to depict imitate marble patterns on wall paintings at Tel Kadesh; explorations of subtle use of green and blue pigments from Neolithic to Roman painting. Pigment production, quality, and acquisition were also discussed in presentations highlighting production centers of Egyptian blue and the ancient artists’ buying considerations in the Roman marketplace. The second session focused on materials (predominantly pigment) analysis of various polychrome artifacts and wall paintings, presenting a wide range of invasive and non-invasive characterization techniques and their applications to objects including, but not limited to, Etruscan antefixes, Roman wall paintings, Greco-Roman funerary portraits, and a unique mummy footboard. These presentations also addressed the potential visual aesthetics intended by the ancient artists and the challenging questions that arise from archaeological material analysis, as well as how this information is being communicated to a broader audience in museum context. These two sessions brought together an eclectic group of archaeologists, conservators, historians, artists, and scientists for a diverse group of presentations and panel discussions. Hopefully the next AIA Annual Meeting in 2021 (Chicago, Il) will facilitate even more exciting discussions on archaeological painting analyses!

Left: Panel discussion from Session 5J; inset: excavated Egyptian blue pellets presented at the meeting. Right: Top – Kate Smith presenting the results from a multi-characterization approach of an Egyptian funerary headboard. Bottom – Krystal Cunningham discussing the reverse engineering and reproduction of ancient cobalt blue.