The black and red decoration of ancient Attic vases emerges in pristine condition following over 25 centuries of burial. This remarkable resistance of the surface decoration to environmental stresses , superior to that of ancient glass, attracted the interest of craftsmen, chemists and materials scientists ever since the Attic vases reached western Europe in the 18th century. As a result of our research on ancient techniques, their recovery and their revival this riddle was finally solved. The answer lies in the formation of an aluminosillicate glass coloured by black nanoparticles with dimensions of a fraction of millionth of a meter.
