Mapping mineral pigments across Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Americas with spectral imaging and provenance trails.
Open a pigment route in GeoStories, then inspect surfaces in 3D Tours or listen via Audio Guides.
Back to collections →We combine hyperspectral imaging, XRF, Raman, and GIS sourcing to build pigment biographies across continents.
Do you share raw spectra?
No raw spectra are distributed by this page. Use spectra only when the holding institution or research repository supplies calibration, units, method, and reuse terms.
Lightfastness guidance?
This page does not prescribe display limits. Light sensitivity depends on the material, binder, substrate, previous exposure, and environment; consult a qualified conservator and the institution's preventive-conservation guidance.
How to integrate in class?
Use spectra vs. trade-route maps, then compare with glaze chemistry in Asian Artifacts or fresco work in Mediterranean.
A color name is not a chemical identification. Imaging, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy, and microscopic sampling answer different questions and have different spatial resolution and detection limits. A responsible record states the instrument, measurement location, units, calibration, and whether the conclusion is tentative or confirmed.
Method claims and access language reviewed 9 October 2026. Educational comparison only; not a conservation treatment recommendation.
Mapping mineral pigments across Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Americas with spectral imaging and provenance trails.
| Observe | Describe material, form, marks, wear or spatial relation without assigning identity or purpose. Begin with “Methods.” |
|---|---|
| Context | Locate the record in excavation, collection, restoration and display history. Check the chain against Getty Conservation Institute: Artists' Pigments and Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute: Pigments. |
| Infer | Composition and microstructure can illuminate recipes and production sequences, but recycling, repair and contamination complicate workshop attribution. Tie every attribution to the feature that supports it and retain competing readings. |
| Withhold | Do not extend “Comparative” beyond the date, sample, comparison or provenance actually documented. |
List each custody or documentation gap separately; an unknown interval is evidence about the record, not permission to invent continuity.
Open a pigment route in GeoStories , then inspect surfaces in 3D Tours or listen via Audio Guides . Mark later repairs, labels and digital reconstructions as later interventions rather than original features.
Research-room promptWhat single comparison object, technical test or archive entry would most change the interpretation of Pigment Study?