Definition
Color terms or partitions of color denotata evidenced in ancient language artifacts.
Words and Hues, Languages and Time: An Overview
The sources for understanding the earliest color terms and categories are from the lands to the east and south of the Mediterranean Sea. Evidence of color categories from proto-cuneiform, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Akkadian in Mesopotamia and Egypt (from the end of the fourth millennium BC onwards) is followed (during the second millennium) by Greek in the West and Chinese in the East. Linguistic terms relating to color are present in all these languages.
What is known about the earliest color categories is derived from artifacts and texts. The use of color goes back at least 100,000 years, but the origins of color vocabulary lie in the period since roughly 8000 BC (=10,000 years ago), and the earliest texts (from ca. 3200 BC) appear millennia later. By...
References
Englund, R.K., Nissen, H.J.: Die Lexikalischen Listen der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk. Gebr Mann, Berlin (1993)
Landsberger, B.: Über Farben im Sumerisch-Akkadischen. J. Cuneif. Stud. 21, 139–173 (1967)
Schenkel, W.: Die Farben in ägyptischer Kunst und Sprache. Z. Ägyptische Sprache 88, 131–147 (1963)
Schenkel, W.: Color terms in ancient Egyptian and Coptic. In: MacLaury, R.E., Paramei, G.V., Dedrick, D. (eds.) Anthropology of Color: Interdisciplinary Multilevel Modelling, pp. 211–228. Benjamins, Amsterdam (2007)
Bulakh, M.: Basic color terms from proto-semitic to old ethiopic. In: MacLaury, R.E., Paramei, G.V., Dedrick, D. (eds.) Anthropology of Color: Interdisciplinary Multilevel Modelling, pp. 247–261. Benjamins, Amsterdam (2007)
Blakolmer, F.: Zum Charakter der frühägäischen Farben: Linear B und Homer. In: Blakolmer, F. (ed.) Österreichische Forschungen zur Ägäischen Bronzezeit 1998: Akten der Tagung am Institut für Klassisiche Archäologie der Universität Wien 2.–3. Mai 1998, pp. 225–239. Wiener Forschungen zur Archäologie, Vienna (2000)
Xu, W.: A Study of Chinese Colour Terminology. Lincom, Munich (2007)
Liddel, H.G., Scott, R., Jones, H.S.: A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1958)
Baines, J.: Color terminology and color classification: ancient Egyptian color terminology and polychromy. Am. Anthropol. 87, 240–262 (1985)
Warburton, D.A.: The theoretical implications of ancient Egyptian colour vocabulary for anthropological and cognitive theory. Lingua Aegyptia 16, 213–259 (2008)
Warburton, D.A.: Colors in bronze age Egyptian art and language. In: Brinkmann, V., Primavesi, O., Hollein, M. (eds.) Circumlitio: The Polychromy of Antique and Mediaeval Sculpture, pp. 170–187. Liebighaus, Frankfurt (2010)
Berlin, B., Kay, P.: Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. University of California Press, Berkeley (1969)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Warburton, D.A. (2016). Ancient Color Categories. In: Luo, M.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8071-7_75
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8071-7_75
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-8070-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8071-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics