Yellow

The Color Yellow


 * [[image:501965030_374b3b5b50.jpg width="272" height="181" align="left"]]Egyptian Name:**

//Khenet// or //Kenit//


 * Hieroglyphics:**



The ancient Egyptian concept of "yellow" covered all shades of the color, as well as sometimes extending to gold. The color yellow was also used interchangeably with the color white, and at those times it took on the symbolism of white, and vice-versa. In Egyptian statuary and jewelry yellow was represented by yellow glass or amber. Yellow pigments were derived from naturally occurring iron-based ocher, jarosite, orpiment (arsenic trisulphide), and plant dyes such as henna, chamomile, safflower, and the rind of the pomegranate.

The sun was yellow and carried the qualities of being imperishable, eternal, and indestructible. Thus anything portrayed as yellow in ancient Egyptian art generally carried this connotation. The cobra, related to the sun, was often portrayed with the upper part of its body being yellow.

Women, who often worked indoors, were pictured with light yellow-white skin (the skin of women was also painted yellow during mummification). Although men were normally shown to have red skin, some older men were pictured with yellow skin, to stress the individual's old age and the attainment of a prestigious position that did not require him to work outside, exposed to the sun's harsh rays. Yellow was also the color used for sand, wheat, barley, and wicker objects.

Egyptian Colors