Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Cedar oil was used as the base for paints by the ancient Sumerians. They would grind cobalt compoundss in a mortar and pestle to produce a blue pigment. They could obtain green from copper, yellow from lead antimoniate, black from charcoal, and white from gypsum. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.