Ochre

To more adequately answer the questions that came up on Friday about ochre, here's some info:

From Wikipedia:

Ochre ( /ˈoʊkər/ oh-kər; from Greek: ὠχρός, ōkhrós, pale) is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues. Because of these other hues, the color ochre is sometimes referred to as "yellow ochre" or "gold ochre".

Ochres are among the earliest pigments used by mankind, derived from naturally tinted clay containing mineral oxides. Chemically, it is hydrated iron (III) oxide, mineralogically known as limonite. Modern artists' pigments continue to use the terms "yellow ochre" and "red ochre" for specific hues.

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The earliest potential evidence for complex human culture comes from the site of Blombos Cave in South Africa, where two pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs have been found, often considered to be the world's first known art, along with shells pierced for use as jewelry and a complex toolkit including finely crafted bone tools. The ensemble is dated to around 75,000 years ago.

This is the engraved piece of ochre we talked about in class.