DID PALEOLITHIC ARTISTS HAVE THE BLUES?

Azurite mineral deposit. Internet image, public domain.

I have posted previous columns about the use of the color blue in rock art and other ancient art (click on ‘color’ in the cloud index at the bottom). Recently, one column was about the discovery of indigo on grinding stones dated 34,000 years ago. Now we have evidence of the use of a blue mineral pigment, azurite, in Europe from about 13,000 years ago.

Doctor Izzy Wisher of the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, and the Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics of Aarhus University, Denmark, wrote: “Blue pigments are absent in Palaeolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues. Using a suite of archaeometric approaches, the authors identify traces of azurite on a concave stone artifact from the Final Palaeolithic site of Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. This represents the earliest use of blue pigment in Europe. The scarcity of blue in Palaeolithic art, along with later prehistoric uses of azurite, may indicate that azurite was used for archaeologically invisible activities (e.g. body decoration) implying intentional selectivity over the pigments used for different Palaeolithic artistic activities.” (Wisher et al. 2025:1) The evidence was found as trace deposits in between the grains of a grinding stone, presumably used to grind the azurite as a pigment, or somehow shape it.

Blue pigment residue found at site in Central Germany. Photograph by Izzy Wisher.

Detection of these mineral traces depended upon a suite of techniques available to modern, cutting-edge laboratories. “To characterize the composition and crystalline structure of the blue residue, and to determine whether it resulted from the processing of a blue pigment, we deployed a suite of archeometric methods: micro- and x-ray florescence (μXRF/XRF); scanning electron microscopy coupled with electron dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS); particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE); Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); fibre optic reflection spectroscopy (FORS); multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ((MC-)ICP-MS); and multiband imaging.” (Wisher et al. 2025:5) Presumably this is why the paper lists a team of fifteen scientists involved in this investigation.

Azurite deposit on artifact. Internet image, public domain.

The team “confirmed the traces were from the vivid blue mineral pigment azurite, previously unseen in Europe’s Paleolithic art. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity. ‘This challenges what we thought we knew about Paleolithic pigment use,’ says lead author of the study, Dr. Izzy Wisher from Aarhus University. Until now, scholars believed Paleolithic artists predominantly used only red and black pigments – no other colors are present in the art of this period. This was thought to be due to a lack of blue minerals or their limited visual appeal.” (Phys.org 2025) I certainly have to disagree with the ‘limited visual appeal’ statement. What is more beautiful and attention grabbing than a bright blue stone? Remember the importance of turquoise throughout human history. Now, shortage of natural sources makes much more sense because azurite is not that common.

Azurite ore deposit from Serbia. Internet image, public domain.

"Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France." (Wikipedia)

The three areas of blue residue present on the sandstone layer of the stone artefact from Mühlheim-Dietesheim. Area A, due to its more accessible location on a flatter area of the sandstone, was the primary focus of archaeometric analyses. Scale bar is 50mm (figure by authors). Figure 1, page 3, Wisher et al., 2025.

I only know of two older examples of the human use of blue pigment. “’It’s nearly the oldest blue pigment in the world – the only other known example that predates our case is from Siberia, where traces of blue-green pigment were found on figurines dating to around 19-23,000 years ago,’ Dr. Izzy Wisher, lead study author and archaeologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, told IFLScience. There is also evidence from Georgia, dating to 32,000–34,000 years ago, of people potentially creating a purplish-blue pigment from crushed indigo plants (Isatis tinctoria), the same plant that would later give rise to the dyes behind blue jeans. Outside of these rare cases, however, true blue pigments are exceptionally scarce in the prehistoric world.”(Hale 2025) We do not know what this azurite was to be used for, but it was obviously possessed and used for something by these ancient peoples.

So, it would seem that the conclusion has to be that yes, they had the blues, but apparently did not use them in their pictographic art.

NOTE 1: The above reference to IFLScience refers to the website https://iflscience.com.

NOTE 2: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Hale, Tom, 2025, Dating Back 13,000 Years, One Of The Earliest Uses Of Blue Pigment Has Been Unearthed, 29 September 2025, https://www.eflscience.com. Accessed online 29 September 2025.

Phys.org, 2025, Europle’s oldest blue mineral pigment found in Germany, September 2025, https://phys.org/. Accessed online 29 Septembe 2025.

Wikipedia, Azurite, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=164155

Wisher, Izzy et al., 2025, The earliest evidence of blue pigment use in Europe, Antiquity, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10184. Accessed online 19 September 2025.

 

PIGMENTS FROM FATE BELL SHELTER, VAL VERDE COUNTY, TEXAS:

View of Fate Bell Shelter, Seminole Canyon

State Park, Val Verde County, TX.

Photo: March 2004, Peter Faris.

Among other aspects of the fascination in rock art is the material question or physical aspect of their presence, especially the tools and materials used to create them. I make special note of any reports of tools and materials I come across - especially the pigments used in pictographs. Some evidence of this came from excavations in the wonderful Fate Bell rock shelter, in Val Verde County, Texas.

Fate Bell Shelter-2, Val Verde County, TX.

Photo: March 2004, Peter Faris.

“The Pecos River style paintings utilized a number of colors in highly interesting combinations. Depending upon which subdivision of the style they belong to, one color was often used to outline another, and alternating lines of color are common. A dark red was the most frequently used color, and next in descending order of frequency were black, light red, yellow, orange, and white. The red, orange, and yellow shades were obtained from ocher, the black appears to be carbon, and the white was derived from clay.” (Newcomb 1967:41-42)

Fate Bell Shelter, Seminole Canyon

State Park, Val  Verde County, TX.

Photo: Teresa Weedin, February 1995. 

The 1930s excavation of Fate Bell Shelter produced samples of the paint that were used to create the pictographs. “At depths of 26 and 32 inches, against the wall of the shelter, at the 145-foot line from the south, were uncovered two unusual pieces of limonite, or yellow ochre. The one from a depth of 26 inches was broken and shattered at the edges of the break, but is about 14 inches long. It is triangular in cross-section and comes to a point at each end. Two other features of interest are: (1) the bottom side is flat, while the other two sides are slightly convex; (2)one side has four shallow grooves, or depressions, running lengthwise. The grooves are about one-fourth inch wide and suggest wear by a fiber brush, the edge of a pebble, or the end of a round stick. The other bar is of the same shape, slightly smaller, and without grooves. The presence of pictographs of a mustard-yellow color would indicate that these bars of ocher of the same color, were to be used as paint.” (Pearce 1933:55)

Bar of yellow ocher, Fate Bell Shelter,

Val Verde County, Texas, p. 50,

Pearce and Jackson, 1933.

“In addition to the two shaped bars of ocher, one lump of orange-colored ocher and ten lumps of various sizes of red ocher, or hematite, were found.

Among the rubbish was found a charcoal “pencil” that showed unmistakable signs of use.” (Pearce 1933:56)

It is not that common to find samples of the paint used in pictograph sites. The only other location I know of is Shield Cave in Glenwood Canyon, Eagle County, Colorado, which I wrote about in “Ochre Pigments In Pictographs,” December 26, 2011. I know there must be many other sites where paint materials have been found along with the pictographs they were used in the creation of, I just cannot personally recall any. This is quite unlike the case with petroglyphs where the hammerstones used to create them are fairly common on the ground in their locations. In any case, in a field where so much has to depend on opinion and interpretation, it is a joy to once in a while find actual factual data and evidence to examine.

REFERENCE:

Newcomb, W. W., Jr.

1967    The Rock Art of Texas Indians, Paintings by Forrest Kirkland, University of Texas Press, Austin and London.

Pearce, J. E., and A. T. Jackson,

1933    A Prehistoric Rock Shelter In Val Verde County, Texas, Anthropological Papers of the University of Texas, Vol. 1, No. 3, Bureau of Research in the Social Sciences, Study No. 6, University of Texas, Austin.

ROCK ART AND FOSSILS – FATE BELL SHELTER, A SPECIAL PLACE:

Pictographs, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde 

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

In 2004, we had the privilege to tour rock art of Val Verde County, Texas, with Teresa Weedin and a group from the Colorado Archaeological Society, guided by James Zintgraff, who had done so much to protect and study it.

Pictographs, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde 

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

A large proportion of the rock art in this area is found in large rock shelters in the limestone bedrock, like Fate Bell Shelter seen here. This limestone is quite fossiliferous, begging the question, is the rock art linked to the fossils in any way? Do fossils interest you? They have always fascinated me, and I think that is the normal reaction of most people to the idea of a shell or other part of a formerly living thing now in solid stone. I would bet that the early native American inhabitants of this area felt the same way.

Ammonite fossil, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde 

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

John Felix has suggested that the shapes in the earliest rock art were copied from fossils found in nature (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~feliks/impact-of-fossils/index.html). It is not difficult to imagine a coiled ammonite fossil inspiring the first spiral petroglyph. This is certainly a possibility, although I cannot imagine how we can prove it. We do, however, know of instances where fossils are accompanied by rock art which certainly suggests some link (although the link could just be the rock, but I believe it is more - people are fascinated by fossils).  In this part of Texas it does seem to at least the casual observer that locales with prominent fossils also tend to have rock art. That is certainly the case with some of the major sites displaying Pecos River Style rock art. Some of these sites are Fate Bell Shelter, Halo Shelter, Painted Canyon, and White Shaman.

Watercolor paintings of the pictographs in Fate Bell Shelter.

From W. W. Newcomb, The Rock Art of Texas Indians, 

Paintings by Forrest Kirkland, 1967. 

In this posting I am going to present Fate Bell Shelter in Seminole Canyon State Historic Park, Val Verde County, Texas. “The site was first excavated by the University of Texas between October 20 and November 18, 1932, by a crew of five men led by James E. Pearce and A. T. Jackson. The 1932 expedition was the only major excavation of the shelter. A smaller excavation was carried out by Mark Parsons in 1963 as part of the salvage operations prior to the construction of Amistad Dam. Various projects since then have documented the Indian rock art extant in Fate Bell Shelter and in the surrounding area.” (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbf01)

“Fate Bell Shelter is best known for its pictographs, which are among the best documented and best preserved of the Pecos River Style. This Style, which may date between three and four thousand years before the present, is generally considered the oldest of the types found in the Lower Pecos area. This would place the art in the middle Archaic period. The Pecos River style is a polychrome style that is considered a manifestation of the shaman cult. The central characters of the pictographs are faceless anthropomorphic figures, elaborately dressed and often holding a variety of accessories such as atlatls, darts, and fending sticks. The figures are often depicted with their arms outstretched, and in later pictographs the shamans’ arms are increasingly stylized and seem to be more akin to wings than arms. At one end of the shelter there are also examples of Red Linear figures – a Late Archaic Period style characterized by very small stick figures engaged in various activities.” (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbf01)

 Fossils in limestone block, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

The remarkable thing about the fossils in Fate Bell Shelter is that some of them are displayed prominently in a large, roughly cubical, block of limestone. This limestone block was placed in the shelter in a location that suggested it had been moved there from elsewhere (there was no corresponding void in the ceiling above suggesting to me that it had fallen). It had many fossils that I believe to be Elimia tenera (in the family Pleuroceridae) shells showing on its surface, and the upper surface was quite polished. It looked like it had been oiled and burnished, perhaps by butt polish or intentional preparation. In his 1933 report on his studies at Fate Bell, Pearce stated: “On the surface, at the outer edge of the shelter, is a boulder of limestone that evidently was used in working down and polishing bone and wood implements. The upper surface of the stone is 60 by 37 inches. The entire surface is worn exceedingly smooth and some portions, around the rims of old eroded depressions, are as slick and shiny as glass. In addition, there are several hundred grooves with sharp, well-defined edges. The depths of the grooves vary from 1/16 to ½ inch and the lengths range from ½ to 10 inches. The presence of numerous bone implements in the midden deposit explains the use of this stone.” (Pearce 1933:37-38) You can see by this that Pearce believed that the polish was caused by abrasion from sharpening awls and other artifacts. This struck me as unlikely because the smoother the boulder became the less effective as a sharpening stone it would become. I think that the job would have been abandoned long before it achieved its present state of polish. Remember too that it has sat there for many centuries, it must have been even more polished originally. More interestingly, Pearce did not mention the fossils showing on this block. Either he considered them unimportant, or perhaps he was discussing a different block of stone, but then why did he not discuss the one we saw? I can only assume that Pearce, as a traditional archaeologist, had no interest in fossils and did not bother to mention them in depth. A final point is that limestone is a soft rock and would not have been very effective as a sharpening stone.

To me, it was hard to escape the conclusion that there was some sort of correspondence or connection between the pictographs and the fossils at Fate Bell Shelter. Both were prominently placed, both took a lot of work to put in place and prepare, and both are examples of things that the people would have found special and meaningful. Also seen at Fate Bell Shelter was a fossil ammonite in the bedrock. I am certain that a detailed search would have turned up many more fossils.

In his 1933 report of the excavations of Fate Bell Shelter Pearce listed two fossils found in burial contexts. However, he did not identify the type of fossils they were, and careful reading of the inventories in his burial descriptions only yielded mention of one fossil found. This example of one (or two) fossils included in grave goods seems to me to reinforce the significance of fossils and thus, the relationship of those fossils to the rock art of Fate Bell Shelter.

The 1930s excavation of Fate Bell Shelter also produced samples of the paint that were used to create the pictographs. I will take this up in a separate posting at a future date. Additionally, material items found in the rock shelters in this region often include painted pebbles, and this was certainly the case at Fate Bell Shelter. I will focus on the painted pebbles in a future posting as well.

REFERENCE:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~feliks/impact-of-fossils/index.html

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbf01

Newcomb, W. W., Jr.

1967    The Rock Art of Texas Indians, Paintings by Forrest Kirkland, University of Texas Press, Austin and London.

Pearce, J. E., and A. T. Jackson,

1933    A Prehistoric Rock Shelter In Val Verde County, Texas, Anthropological Papers of the University of Texas, Vol. 1, No. 3, Bureau of Research in the Social Sciences, Study No. 6, University of Texas, Austin.