Where is ochre found in the US?
Ochre is a naturally occurring iron oxide pigment found in the interior coastal plains of Texas and farther inland. Ochre comes in a variety of colors, from brown to red to yellow, however red ochre is the most common type found among coastal assemblages.
Where is ochre Australia?
Other fine quality ochre deposits were spread as far apart as Red Hill in south-eastern Australia, the Western MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, Mount Roland in Tasmania, Lyndhurst in South Australia, and Wilgie Mia in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
Where is red ocher found?
Red ochre consists of silica and clay owing its color to iron oxide. It is found throughout the world, in many shades, in hues from yellow to brown, and faint blue. The best brown ochre comes from Cyprus. Red and yellow ochre pigments abound at the surface in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
How do you identify ochre?
ochre, a native earth coloured with hydrated iron oxide. It varies in colour from pale yellow to deep red, brown, and violet. There are two kinds: one has a clayey basis, while the other is a chalky earth. The former variety is in general the richer and purer in colour of the two.
Why do aboriginals use ochre?
Ochre Is Used As Foundation of Cultural Expression These natural pigments (colours) were originally used to depict Dreamtime stories and maps. They were used either in body painting, rock painting, on artefacts and sometimes even on sand.
How is ochre mined?
A cavern opens from the pit and the miners tunnelled out many small caves and galleries as they followed the red and yellow ochre seams. The mining method here was to hit the rock with heavy stone mauls and dig the ochre out with fire-hardened pointed wooden wedges.
What is the difference between ocher and ochre?
Ocher and ochre are different spellings of the same word, referring to (1) any of several earthy mineral oxides of iron occurring in brown, yellow, or red and used as pigments, and (2) a moderate orange yellow. The only difference is that ocher is the American spelling while ochre is preferred outside the U.S.
Is ochre a rock or mineral?
Ochre are minerals containing the presence of iron and oxygen, generally iron oxides and hydroxides. These minerals leave a colored mark or trace, specific to their elemental structure and trace elements.
What is ochre used for today?
Ochre pigments were, and still are, widely used in paint and artwork. Many of the red and yellow pigments in rock art panels around the world are made with ochre-based paints.
How do you make natural ochre?
Rub two pieces of sandstone together until you get a decent amount of coloured dust (ochre). Then, using a paintbrush, add water and continue adding small amounts of water directly to the rock until the powder has turned into a paste.
Is ochre edible?
Culinary Notes. The Ochre Brittlegill is an edible mushroom, but it must be thoroughly cooked.
Is ochre good for your skin?
Used by our people for thousands of years, Red Ochre has been in ceremony, to colour and paint, and improve and protect skin from damage and irritation. It is also a natural sunscreen. The high content of minerals such as Quartz and Iron help to replenish protect and condition the skin creating a healthy glow.
What is ochre used for Aboriginal?
Australian Aboriginal people have a tradition of using ochre pigment to paint that dates back to ancient times. These ochres are primarily natural pigments and minerals found in the soil, or even in charcoal. Paintings using these natural pigments (colours) depict Aboriginal Dreamtime stories and maps.
How did Aboriginal people make ochre?
Ochre used in Aboriginal paintings were usually dug or mined from places with a kind of soft colourful stone which is completely natural. There are a variety of colours that can be extracted and then mixed with other pigments to produce other colours/hues much like the way we mix acrylic colours to form other pigments.
How do you pronounce Aboriginal ochre?
Break 'ochre' down into sounds: [OH] + [KUH] - say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them.
What rocks did aboriginals use?
Types of rock mined by Aborigines included amphibolite, andesite, basalt, blue metal, chalcedony, chert, diabase, granite, greenstone, greywacke, ironstone, limestone, mudstone, obsidian, porphyry, quartz, quartzite, sandstone, silcrete, silicified stone, siltstone and trachyte.
Where is ochre found?
Where it's found. Ochre occurs naturally in rocks and soil — essentially in any environment where iron minerals have pooled and formed, Pettitt said. "It can be found in valley edges, eroding out of cliffs [or even] in caves eroding out of the bedrock," Pettitt told Live Science. In its more eroded form, ochre can be found in certain soils ...
What color is ochre?
People who pick up ochre will notice that it stains their hands a "nice red or yellow color," Pettitt noted. Once collected, ochre can easily be grated against a coarse piece of stone or ground by a mortar and pestle and then turned into a powder. Then, this powder can be mixed with a liquid, such as water, saliva or egg whites, and turned into pigmented paint.
What is the mineral that contains oxidized iron?
Ochre (pronounced OAK-er) is clay pigmented by hematite, a reddish mineral that contains oxidized iron, which is iron that's been mixed with oxygen, said Paul Pettitt, a professor of paleolithic archaeology at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
How many pieces of ochre were found?
There, archaeologists found about 70 pieces of ochre weighing about 11 lbs. (5 kilograms). However, more convincing evidence dates to about 250,000 years ago at the early Neanderthal site of Maastricht-Belvédère in the Netherlands, Pettitt said.
Why is ochre considered a symbol of life?
As a bright red pigment, it's possible that ancient people saw ochre as a symbol of life, in part because it is the color of blood, especially deep-red menstrual blood. "Some societies quite commonly associate the color red, and therefore ochre, with creation, life and fertility," Pettitt said. (However, not everyone agrees.
What is ochre in art?
Artists have been painting with ochre, a naturally occurring pigment, for hundreds of thousands of years. Their masterpieces range from prehistoric, ochre-pigmented images on cave walls to paintings on canvasses and other artwork from medieval times and onward. Ochre (pronounced OAK-er) is clay pigmented by hematite, ...
Where did Homo sapiens find ochre?
Early Homo sapiens also illustrated with ochre. At Blombos Cave, in South Africa, archaeologists found an abalone shell containing finely ground ochre, charcoal and fat that may have made up a painting kit dating to about 100,000 years ago, Nowell said.
Where is ochre found?
Ochre is very common on archaeological sites worldwide. Certainly, Upper Paleolithic cave art in Europe and Australia contain the generous use of the mineral: but ochre use is much older. The earliest possible use of ochre discovered so far is from a Homo erectus site about 285,000 years old.
Where is the ochre?
Ochre was part of the first art of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) phase in Africa called Howiesons Poort. The early modern human assemblages of 100,000-year-old MSA sites including Blombos Cave and Klein Kliphuis in South Africa have been found to include examples of engraved ochre, slabs of ochre with carved patterns deliberately cut into the surface.
What is the role of ochre in human evolution?
Spanish paleontologist Carlos Duarte (2014) has even suggested that using red ochre as a pigment in tattoos (and otherwise ingested) may have had a role in human evolution, as it would have been a source of iron directly to the human brain, perhaps making us smarter. The presence of ochre mixed with milk proteins on an artifact from a 49,000-year-old MSA level at Sibudu cave in South Africa is suggested to have been used to make the ochre liquid, probably by killing a lactating bovid (Villa 2015).
What is ochre pigment?
Her work has appeared in scholarly publications such as Archaeology Online and Science. Ochre (rarely spelled ocher and often referred to as yellow ochre) is one of a variety of forms of iron oxide which are described as earth-based pigments. These pigments, used by ancient and modern artists, are made of iron oxyhydroxide, ...
How much iron oxyhydroxide is in ochre?
Getting Red from Yellow. Ochre contains a minimum of 12% iron oxyhydroxide, but the amount can range up to 30% or more, giving rise to the wide range of colors from light yellow to red and brown.
Where was ochre discovered?
By 250,000-200,000 years ago, Neanderthals were using ochre, at the Maastricht Belvédère site in The Netherlands (Roebroeks) and the Benzu rock shelter in Spain.
When was ochre used in a burial?
Ochre is often associated with human burials: for example, the Upper Paleolithic cave site of Arene Candide has an early use of ochre at a burial of a young man 23,500 years ago .
Where is red ochre found?
Worldwide from Paleolithic peoples in Europe to Late Holocene peoples of the Americas, residues of red ochre are found in burial contexts . The coastal natives of Texas are no exception and used red ochre to imbue the departed with symbolic “blood.”.
What is the most common type of ochre?
Ochre comes in a variety of colors, from brown to red to yellow, however red ochre is the most common type found among coastal assemblages. Red ochre , which is also derived from hematite, is composed mostly of iron oxide (Fe 2 O 3) and forms in areas where soil is well-drained.
What is the color of the ochre on the Mitchell Ridge?
At Mitchell Ridge traces of red ochre staining were observed on bone elements of 18 individuals and numerous shell artifacts. Since the human bones exhibited only trace amounts of red ochre, archaeologists believe paint was applied to the bodies as a burial ritual rather than deposited as a separate grave offering.
Where to find ochre soil?
Soil scientist here. You're most likely to find ochre-colored soil material in loess deposits. Loess is wind-blown silt sediments, and should be pretty common in your area. If you can read a soil map https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/ is a great resource for locating it. I would look for anything slightly hilly and labeled an inceptisol.
How to turn yellow ochre into red ochre?
You can convert yellow ochre to red ochre by roasting it, say in an open pan on the stove, or a clay pot on the fire, or by calcinating the stones in the fire before grinding.
Where is red ochre found?
Its use is particularly ancient as demonstrated by a number of major archaeological sites. Finds of red ochre at Keniff Cave in Queensland date back to the earliest occupation some 19,000 years ago, with similar ages suggested at other diggings including Miriwun in the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, and Cloggs Cave in Victoria ( Mulvaney in Peterson, 1975: 155 ). Perhaps the most impressive evidence of its ancient use, however, comes from the Lake Mungo site in the Willandra Lakes area of western New South Wales. Here a 40,000 year ritual burial, known as Mungo Man, was found covered in over two kilograms of red ochre.
Where was ochre mined?
The deposits where the best ochre was mined, such as the Yarrakina at Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges in South ...
How did the ochre form?
In the local Wajarri people’s tradition, the ochre is said to have been formed by the death of a great kangaroo, speared by the Spirit Being called Mondong. In an agonizing leap, the kangaroo landed at what is now Wilgie Mia, spilling the red ochre his blood, the yellow his river, and green his gall.
How deep is the ochre mine?
This is a most remarkable mine, with open cut excavations between 15 and 30 metres in width and up to 20 metres deep, from which numerous small caves and galleries branch off.
What is the purpose of ochre?
Ochre helped to condition and preserve the wood and was believed to imbue the artefacts with spiritual powers for hunting and ceremonial purposes . The natural earth pigment ochre was also used extensively throughout Aboriginal Australia for rock art and is considered to be the earliest known paint form used by humans.
What was the 40,000 year ritual burial known as?
Here a 40,000 year ritual burial, known as Mungo Man, was found covered in over two kilograms of red ochre. The ochre at the burial site had been extracted and brought in from mines over 200 kilometres away ( Griffiths, 131 ). This was not unusual in ancient Australia, with ochre of different colours, textures and qualities traded regularly between ...
Why do mosquitoes like ochre?
Mosquitos particularly are attracted by odours emitted by humans such as carbon dioxide and perspiration. Applying ochre acted as a protective shield that concealed bodily odours. This ability to mask human scent was also advantageous for hunters stalking large game, such as kangaroo and emu.
Where did ochre come from?
As a commercial product, it found fame after Jean-Atelier Astier developed a process for extracting it at scale from the brightly coloured red and yellow cliffs of Provence in the late 18th century, and became the pigment of choice for yellow, red and orange paints and dyes. Ochre may be found in multiple colours;
Where is ochre used in concrete?
Further to this, in terms of more conventional concrete, high ochre-containing aggregates have been used in concrete production in South East Asia at up to 30% of total aggregate, producing a concrete as strong as regular concrete (18).
What is ochre cement?
That is, a quick setting cement that forms a seal around a pipe containing liquid. Alongside gelatin and plaster of paris, the cement proposed used ochre as one of its co-equal largest ingredients, providing a low cost fixing seal that is resilient to water, including at high temperatures.
What is yellow ochre?
Yellow ochre is a hydrated form of iron oxide hydroxide, FeO (OH). n H 2 O, commonly referred to as limonite. It is one of the three principal ores of iron, alongside hematite and magnetite, and is found naturally across the world. Its main use over time has been as a dye, owing to the bright yellow colour it is often presented with, with some reports stating its use as a dye in Africa goes back almost 300,000 years. As a commercial product, it found fame after Jean-Atelier Astier developed a process for extracting it at scale from the brightly coloured red and yellow cliffs of Provence in the late 18th century, and became the pigment of choice for yellow, red and orange paints and dyes.
What is the composition of yellow ochre?
Yellow ochre as supplied by African Pegmatite contains iron (iii) oxide (27.0%), alumina (14.0%) and silica (47.0%) by mass, with the balance being trace minerals. Standard milling is to a particle size where 90% are smaller than 75 μm and drying is to a maximum of 3% water by mass.
Is ochre a strong color?
Cements and Concretes. As a pigment in cements, ochre is responsible for a strong yellow colouration and has been reported to be highly stable over long terms (11). This ‘chromatic effectiveness’ has proven its worth over many years.
Is ochre a pigment?
The most ubiquitous use of ochre is as a pigment. Its lustrous yellow colouration is highly desirable. Studies on ancient paintings and wall coverings suggest that yellow ochre was used in both Ancient Rome (5) and Egypt (6), though in South Africa, abstract designs made with ochre have been dated back as much as 75,000 years. As a pigment in modern paints, it is responsible for earthy, yellow hues (7). It has been employed as a long-term stable dye for sails, natural fibres and even is effective on synthetic polyacrylonitrile fibres (8).
Where are the Red Ocher people?
Red Ocher people. Great Lakes: Ontario, SW Michigan, W Ohio, Northern Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin. The Red Ocher people were an indigenous people of North America. A series of archaeological sites located in the Upper Great Lakes, the Greater Illinois River Valley, and the Ohio River Valley in the American Midwest have been ...
When was the Red Ocher culture first discovered?
The people today known as Red Ocher were first identified by the University of Chicago in 1937. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Red Ocher Culture was a topic of great interest among archaeologists who were trying to better define the burial culture through various methods of research.
When was red ocher first used?
There is considerable variation from site to site in the few sites with this artifact. The term "Red Ocher" was first used in 1937 as a description from three sites in central Illinois. Some additional sites have since been recognized as Red Ocher because of their cultural similarity to these. There is not a broad synthesis of the existing information and it is easily confused the Glacial Kame Culture.
Where are the sandstone sandstones located?
The sites are from eastern Iowa to central Ohio and from southern Ohio to the Manitoulin District of Ontario. Most of the sites seem are in southeastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, northern Indiana, and the southern half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
Where was the Woman-Ochre exhibit?
For two weeks at the end of August 1981, it was displayed at the Guild Hall of East Hampton, New York, which had exhibited many of de Kooning's other works and helped popularize him.
Where did the Woman-Ochre paintings go?
A 1969 Smithsonian exhibit, The Disappearance and Reappearance of the Image, introduced the painting to museumgoers in several Eastern European countries, Paris and Brussels. Woman-Ochre largely remained in Arizona after that. It was loaned to another MoMA traveling exhibit, Four Contemporary Masters, in 1975.
How long has the Woman-Ochre painting been in the museum?
On August 11 the museum held a news conference announcing that Woman-Ochre had been recovered after 31 years.
How long does it take to restore Woman's Ochre?
Experts at the Getty, who were present, said they expected it would take 14 or 15 months to fully repair Woman-Ochre. During the restoration, conservators will have to decide to what degree they will leave damage related to the theft intact, since the theft is now part of the painting's history.
When did De Kooning start Woman-Ochre?
De Kooning started Woman-Ochre, an extension of his earlier Woman series, in 1954 while living in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village along with other artists and intellectuals of the New York School. He finished it the following year.
Where was Woman's Ochre by De Kooning?
After de Kooning completed Woman-Ochre in 1955, it was displayed at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York for two years, part of a one-man show of 21 works, mostly oils but with a few sketches, only two of them abstract. Edward Joseph Gallagher Jr., an architect and collector from Baltimore, bought it in 1957.
Who gave the Woman-Ochre to the UAMA?
Ultimately, he gave UAMA 200 works including Woman-Ochre, many of which were by de Kooning and other abstract expressionist painters such as Pollock and Mark Rothko. His gift came with the stipulation that the museum could never sell or give the paintings, including Woman-Ochre, to anyone else.
Prehistoric and Historic Uses
Natural Earth Pigments
Getting Red from Yellow
How Old Is Ochre use?
Ochre and Human Evolution
- Ochre was part of the first art of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) phase in Africa called Howiesons Poort. The early modern human assemblages of 100,000-year-old MSA sites including Blombos Caveand Klein Kliphuis in South Africa have been found to include examples of engraved ochre, slabs of ochre with carved patterns deliberately cut into the surface. ...
Identifying The Sources
Sources