Ochre pigment was widely used in prehistoric rock art for its vivid red color, but little is known about how the paint was made. According to a study published November 19 in Scientific Reports that analyzed rock art from Babine Lake in British Columbia, Canada, ancient people appear to have produced ochre by heating up aquatic bacteria to make them change color.
Researchers led by Brandi MacDonald, an archaeologist at the University of Missouri, observed the ochre pigment in ancient Lake Babine rock art under a microscope and found that it contained microfossils of Leptothrix ochracea, a type of bacteria that grows in iron-rich water. When she and her colleagues heated modern-day L. ochracea, the orange-brown bacteria turned bright red. The team concluded that hunter-gatherers harvested bacterial mats, crushed them, and heated them over large open hearths at a temperature of 750–850 ? to make the paint. Heating also made ...
