Editing Blue (section)

=== In the ancient world ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px">
File:Lapis bowl Iran, AO 26477.jpg|[[Lapis lazuli]] bowl from Iran, end of 3rd – beginning of 2nd millennium BC (Louvre Museum)
File:Tripodic goblet Louvre AO4079.jpg|[[Egyptian blue]] tripodic beaker imitating lapis lazuli. South Mesopotamia. (1399-1200 BC)
File:WLA metmuseum Wall painting Polyphemus and Galaltea 4.jpg|Fresco of Polyphemus and Galatea, Pompei, using [[Egyptian blue]] (1st c. BC) (Metropolitan Museum)
</gallery>
As early as the [[7th millennium BC]], lapis lazuli was mined in the [[Sar-i Sang]] mines,<ref name="Ashok Roy 2009">David Bomford and Ashok Roy, ''A Closer Look- Colour'' (2009), National Gallery Company, London, ({{ISBN|978-1-85709-442-8}})</ref> in [[Shortugai]], and in other mines in [[Badakhshan]] province in northeast [[Afghanistan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moorey |first=Peter Roger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Ixuott4doC&q=Lapis+lazuli+++mines+in+the+Badakhshan&pg=PA86 |title=Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: the Archaeological Evidence |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-57506-042-2 |pages=86–87}}</ref>

Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at [[Bhirrana]], which is the oldest site of [[Indus Valley civilisation]].<ref name="lapis">{{Cite web |title=Excavation Bhirrana {{!}} ASI Nagpur |url=http://excnagasi.in/excavation_bhirrana.html |access-date=21 August 2020 |website=excnagasi.in}}</ref> Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation (7570–1900 BC).<ref name="lapis" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sarkar |first1=Anindya |last2=Mukherjee |first2=Arati Deshpande |last3=Bera |first3=M. K. |last4=Das |first4=B. |last5=Juyal |first5=Navin |last6=Morthekai |first6=P. |last7=Deshpande |first7=R. D. |last8=Shinde |first8=V. S. |last9=Rao |first9=L. S. |date=25 May 2016 |title=Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |page=26555 |bibcode=2016NatSR...626555S |doi=10.1038/srep26555 |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=4879637 |pmid=27222033 |doi-access=free |s2cid=4425978}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=DIKSHIT |first=K.N. |date=2012 |title=The Rise of Indian Civilization: Recent Archaeological Evidence from the Plains of 'Lost' River Saraswati and Radio-Metric Dates |journal=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute |volume=72/73 |pages=1–42 |issn=0045-9801 |jstor=43610686}}</ref> Lapis beads have been found at [[Neolithic]] burials in [[Mehrgarh]], the [[Caucasus]], and as far away as [[Mauritania]].<ref name="bc1995">{{Harvcolnb|Bowersox|Chamberlin|1995}}</ref> It was used in the [[Tutankhamun's mask|funeral mask of Tutankhamun]] (1341–1323 BC).<ref>Alessandro Bongioanni & Maria Croce</ref>

A term for Blue was relatively rare in many forms of ancient art and decoration, and even in ancient literature. The Ancient Greek poets described the sea as green, brown or "the colour of wine". The colour is mentioned several times in the [[Hebrew Bible]] as '[[tekhelet]]'. Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in [[cave painting]]s from the Upper [[Paleolithic]] period, but not blue. Blue was also not used for dyeing fabric until long after red, ochre, pink, and purple. This is probably due to the perennial difficulty of making blue dyes and pigments. On the other hand, the rarity of blue pigment made it even more valuable.<ref>See {{harvnb|Pastoureau|2000|pp=13–17}}.</ref>

The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants – [[woad]] in Europe, [[Indigo dye|indigo]] in Asia and Africa, while blue pigments were made from minerals, usually either [[lapis lazuli]] or [[azurite]], and required more.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moorey |first=Peter Roger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Ixuott4doC |title=Ancient mesopotamian materials and industries: the archaeological evidence |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-57506-042-2 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Ixuott4doC&pg=PA86 86]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Ixuott4doC&pg=PA87 87]}}</ref> Blue glazes posed still another challenge since the early blue dyes and pigments were not thermally robust. In {{Circa|2500 BC}}, the blue glaze [[Egyptian blue]] was introduced for ceramics, as well as many other objects.<ref name="chase">Chase, W.T. 1971, "Egyptian blue as a pigment and ceramic material." In: R. Brill (ed.) ''Science and Archaeology''. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. {{ISBN|0-262-02061-0}}</ref><ref>J. Baines, "Color Terminology and Color Classification in Ancient Egyptian Color Terminology and Polychromy", in ''The American Anthropologist'', volume 87, 1985, pp.&nbsp;282–97.</ref> The Greeks imported indigo dye from India, calling it indikon, and they painted with Egyptian blue. Blue was not one of the four primary colours for Greek painting described by [[Pliny the Elder]] (red, yellow, black, and white). For the Romans, blue was the colour of mourning, as well as the colour of barbarians. The Celts and Germans reportedly dyed their faces blue to frighten their enemies, and tinted their hair blue when they grew old.<ref>Caesar, ''The Gallic Wars'', V., 14, 2. Cited by Miche Pastourou, p. 178.</ref> The Romans made extensive use of indigo and Egyptian blue pigment, as evidenced, in part, by frescos in [[Pompeii]].
The Romans had many words for varieties of blue, including {{lang|la|caeruleus}}, {{lang|la|caesius}}, {{lang|la|glaucus}}, {{lang|la|cyaneus}}, {{lang|la|lividus}}, {{lang|la|venetus}}, {{lang|la|aerius}}, and {{lang|la|ferreus}}, but two words, both of foreign origin, became the most enduring; {{lang|la|blavus}}, from the Germanic word ''blau'', which eventually became ''bleu'' or blue; and {{lang|la|azureus}}, from the Arabic word {{transliteration|ar|lazaward}}, which became azure.{{sfn|Pastoureau|2000|p=26}}

Blue was widely used in the decoration of churches in the Byzantine Empire.<ref>L. Brehier, ''Les mosaiques a fond d'azur'', in ''Etudes Byzantines'', volume III, Paris, 1945. pp. 46ff.</ref> By contrast, in the Islamic world, blue was of secondary to green, believed to be the favourite colour of the [[Muhammad|Prophet Mohammed]]. At certain times in [[Al-Andalus|Moorish Spain]] and other parts of the Islamic world, blue was the colour worn by Christians and Jews, because only Muslims were allowed to wear white and green.{{sfn|Varichon|2005|p=175}}