A polychrome painted wooden funerary figurine has been radiocarbon dated to 1220–1050 BC and is painted with a white pigment that includes gypsum, huntite, and tridymite. This is the first discovery of the use of tridymite as a pigment in Ancient Egypt. This unusual white pigment yields an exceptionally bright white paint. The authors argue that Egyptian artisans engaged in a sophisticated, deliberate manipulation of mineral-based pigments to achieve specific desired sacral effects.
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Dodd et al. (2009) studied this question.