Egyptian paint was mostly made with mineral pigments: blue azurite, green malachite, all the range of ochres, and lime for the whites. For the black, they burnt the straw of wheat. To make paint, they dissolved the pigment in a bit of water with gum Arabic, and fixed the colors to the surface with egg albumin or wax.

For such simple materials, the endurance of Egyptian paintings is stunning. They didn’t make frescoes, which is the more long-lasting technique of Antiquity. Their craft mastery is simply mind-blowing.