Archaeology Dictionary:
Munsell colour chart
[Ge]
A set of standard colour swatches developed for the Geological Survey of America that provides an objective for describing soil colour or, in archaeological finds analysis, the colour of ceramic fabrics. Three factors are assessed: hue—the spectrum is divided into ten main colours, each of which is subdivided into ten variants; the value—the darkness or lightness of the colour rated from 1 to 10; and the chroma—the greyness or purity of the colour rated on a scale from 1 to 10. A typical Munsell colour reference might therefore read: 5YR4/6. Anyone with a set of charts can look up the relevant swatch and see the original colour.
