The Pompeiian ‘Blue Room’: in situ detection and economic estimation of Egyptian blue pigment in an ancient domestic sacrarium
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s40494-026-02349-2.pdf
Description
Published version
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15.21 MB
Format
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Checksum (MD5)
c3f6bebef75c3632cfc02f29694f20d4
Author(s)
Quraishi, Mishael A
Nicola, Marco
Weaver, James C
Grifa, Celestino
Amoretti, Valeria
Russo, Antonino
Zuchtriegel, Gabriel
Tarkanian, Michael J
Masic, Admir
Date Issued
March 3, 2026
Journal
npj Heritage Science
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Quraishi, M.A., Nicola, M., Weaver, J.C. et al. The Pompeiian ‘Blue Room’: in situ detection and economic estimation of Egyptian blue pigment in an ancient domestic sacrarium. npj Herit. Sci. 14, 132 (2026).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Egyptian blue (EB) was a prized, intense blue pigment in antiquity, its color commonly associated with wealth, status, and divinity. While frequently used in small quantities for decorative enhancements, Pompeii’s newly excavated “Blue Room”, a shrine in Regio IX Insula 10, is remarkable in that the entire room is covered with this historically famous pigment. Using a combination of visible (white light)-induced luminescence, SEM-EDS, and Raman spectroscopy, we were able to spatially map the large-scale distribution of EB in situ, identify the method of application, and calculate the total quantity of EB used. We estimate that between 2.7 and 4.9 kg of EB was applied in the fresco technique, corresponding to a total cost of between 93 and 168 denarii. These findings demonstrate how modern multi-scale characterization tools can be employed to provide valuable insights into material investment, artistic practice, and social status in an ancient Roman domestic context.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02349-2
