Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked.

It’s always interesting when the latest technology and ancient history collide. It turns out many of those pristine white Greek statues were originally brightly painted, and the reason they’re not colored is that the paint’s just worn away over the years.

In the link above, Gizmodo has some reconstructions of the original colors. Here’s a full photo gallery from the original Smithsonian article. It explains how shining X-rays on the statues helps researchers figure out what kind of pigments might have been used originally.

I just found it funny to see how the statues might have looked in color!

[Smithsonian via Gizmodo]