| Predynastic period | Early Dynastic | Old Kingdom | First Intermediate | Middle Kingdom | Second Intermediate | New Kingdom | Third Intermediate | Graeco-Roman period | Late period |
| Predynastic period | Early Dynastic | Old Kingdom | First Intermediate | Middle Kingdom | Second Intermediate | New Kingdom | Third Intermediate | Graeco-Roman period | Late period |
The Egyptians used mineral compounds to add colour to their art. As a result, some of the colours are still vibrant and beautiful thousands of years later. They made jewellery out of amethyst, garnet, jasper, onyx, hematite, turquoise, lapis lazuli, copper, malachite (a form of copper ore), gold, silver, faience and shells.
Modern cultures consider many of the materials used by the Egyptians to be semi-precious (like turquoise) or cheap (like glass) but to the Egyptians it was the symbolism inherent in the colours that mattered, and the beauty of the image that they could construct from it. Colours were not used randomly, but were intended to convey meaning and imbue an image with greater power. The Egyptian palette was formed around six main colour groups (green, red, blue, yellow, white and black) and of course gold, copper and silver:
