quarters, and some of it was natural and some had been produced by fire.
Though it cannot be determined exactly when Egyptian blue frit was first discovered, the earliest known specimens belong to the Fourth Dynasty, that is, to the period from 2900 to 2750 b.c.416 Some inscriptions that have recently been discovered support the statement about the gifts and tribute of kyanos that were sent to Egypt, though they do not say that they came from Phoenicia. They say that tribute in the form of both natural and imitation lapis lazuli was sent by certain Mesopotamian rulers to Egyptian kings. In one of these inscriptions, for example, it is recorded that the ruler of Assur sent as tribute to Thothmes III three large lumps of genuine lapis lazuli and three pieces of "blue stone of Babel," which was apparently an imitation.417 Thothmes III flourished around 1500 b.c, but the Egyptian rulers mentioned in the other inscriptions are later.
55. Those who grind coloring materials say that \yanosixs itself makes four colors; the first is formed of the finest particles and is very pale, and the second consists of the largest ones and is very dar\.
Blue frit pigment must be the kind of \yanos specifically meant here. Neither azurite nor lapis lazuli yields pigments that differ much in color when they are ground to particles of a different size, but, as has already been indicated, blue frit behaves differently. Some exact measurements of the relation between the color of this pigment and the size of its particles have been made by Peterson.419 When Theophrastus says that four colors were made from this kind of \yanos, he must mean four shades of color, but he is making a mere conventional distinction, since the intensity of the blue color of the pigment decreases continuously as its particles are made smaller. However, it is not unlikely that in
*le Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, p. 394.
417 B. Meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien (Heidelberg, 1920-1925), Vol. I, p. 351.
418 Eichholz thinks that μέν in τ&ν μέν κύανον is superfluous, and that Σκύβην should be substituted for it. He compares Pliny (Ν. Η. ΧΧΧΙΙΙ, 161): Scythicutn mox diluitur et, cum teritur, in quatluor colores mutatur {Classical Review, LXVI [1952], 144).
419 C. L. Peterson, "Egyptian Blue and Related Compounds," Master's thesis (The Ohio State University, 1950), p. 39.
