Red was one of the earliest and most common colors used in the ancient world. Many clays, roots, and other natural materials easily produce colorfast red hues.
Ocher is possibly the first material ever used as a dye. This reddish clay can be found all over the world, and gets its color from the mixture of iron and hematite.
Blue has been a commonly used and adored color across the world since antiquity. Almost all of the original sources of blue came from the same genus of plant: Indigofera.
The plant known as "true indigo" is native to the Indian subcontinent, where it was produced en masse and traded with great ease across Europe and the Near East.
Purple has long been considered a color of luxury and royalty, and for good reason. To produce a strong, vibrant, and colorfast purple dye proved to be no easy task for our ancient ancestors.
Green, despite being such a prominent color in our natural landscape, was notoriously hard to find in natural pigments of the past. Most greens were made by mixing natural blue and yellow dyes.
Yellow has caused the dyers of the past far less trouble than purple or green. Abundant and easily sourced pigments can be found all around the world.
Browns are common across the globe, but finding one that will adhere is a bit tougher. There have, however, been at least a few natural materials that produce strong, colorfast shades of earthy brown.
Its roots were one of the primary sources of cheap yellow dye in Europe until synthetic substitutes were invented in the 20th century.