Episode 53 - The Color Episode

It's time to put on your smocks and grab your brushes, listeners--we're talking colors! Anna and Amber bring you colorful content from your friend and ours, ROY G BIV. Why were squished snails so valuable in the ancient Mediterranean? What was the first synthetic color? IS BLUE EVEN REAL? All this and much more!

To learn more, check out:

Tyrian purple: The disgusting origins of the colour purple (BBC)

Royal Purple: The Dye of Gods and Kings (your friend and mine, Dr. Patrick McGovern)

Colouring the Mediterranean: Production and Consumption of Purple-dyed Textiles in Pre-Roman Times (Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology)

Murex-Purple Dye: The Archaeology behind the Production and an Overview of Sites in the Northwest Maghreb Region (via ResearchGate)

The toxic colour that comes from volcanoes (BBC)

Why Are Carrots Orange? It is Political (Next Nature Network)

History of the Carrot (The Carrot Museum)

Navajo native dyes, their preparation and use on WorldCat

Mauve: the History of the Colour that Revolutionized the World (Open Mind)

There's Evidence Humans Didn't Actually See Blue Until Modern Times (Science Alert)

How do Namibian Himbas see colour? (Gondwana Collection)

Colors are deeply embedded in Mayan culture (Maya-Archaeology.org)

Veiled brightness : a history of ancient Maya color on WorldCat

Maya Blue - Distinctive Color Used by Ancient Maya Artists (ThoughtCo)

Secret to Mayan Blue Paint Found (Live Science)

Altered States (The New Yorker)

The First Time Oliver Sacks Saw Heaven (1964) (National Geographic)

The Dirt Book Club! The Secret Lives of Color, by Kassia St. Clair

Photo credit: Hercules and the Discovery of the Secret of Purple, by Peter Paul Rubens, Public Domain.