Lump of Blue Paste

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small lump is Egyptian blue, a synthetic pigment made from sand, lime, an alkali such as potash or natron, and a copper compound. The components were mixed together and heated in a furnace, producing blue lumps like this one, which could be ground into a pigment. The lump was in a wooden box (36.3.199) together with a bead, a piece of rock salt, and five berries. The box belonged to the burial of an elderly woman (for her coffin, see 36.3.184).

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art