Pigments of the Past

Have you ever wondered how ancient people coloured their world before the invention of modern oil, watercolour or acrylic paints?

Join us in this workshop to explore painted artefacts at the Hellenic Museum and discover the science behind how ancient Greeks ground, mixed and distilled paints and dyes from a variety of natural materials like saffron, lapis lazuli and sandstone! Together we will touch, smell and observe these ingredients and experiment making our own ancient egg tempera paints that were used to create murals in Mycenaean Greece, ancient Egypt, Babylonia and China.

Ideal for young explorers aged 7–13.