Homeric Greece was stage 3.5 out of seven. Various African tribes were at stage one because they only had white, black and red in their vocabularies. England, Russian and Japan were right at the top of the scale. But perceptions have changed, says Bradley.
'Their approach now has been almost universally discredited, precisely because it doesn't take into account different ways of understanding colour.'
Mark Bradley is the author of Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome, also the author of chapter on Greek colour perception in a book called Synaesthesia and the Ancient Senses. Find out more at The Body Sphere.