Materiality is being increasingly included in discussions of ancient colours, but this is not quite compatible with the abstract understanding of colour dominating in the philosophical discussion. Some have simply viewed this as a matter of mere discrepancies, but it can also be understood as opening a window to a different understanding of colour. As the ancient Egyptian use of colours and development of colour terminology are among the oldest available sources, one could argue that this is of an importance far beyond art history and philology — and this book attempts to discuss how.

David A. Warburton (BA, MA, Dr.phil, habil.) has taught Egyptology, Archaeology, Religion, and History at universities in Europe, China and Egypt, aside from doing fieldwork in Egypt, France, Iraq, Switzerland and Syria. His publications deal with ancient economics, politics & warfare, cognition, religion, and contemporary methodology including history of science, globalisation & diffusion, chronology and stratigraphy.