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All five protocols are motivated by the desire to minimize uncontrolled variation in color naming conventions. They are all based on Munsell color codes.
The DAACS-MCRS is an abbreviated version of The Munsell Book of Color,
The Glossy Collection. The DAACS-MCRS is used to describe applied
color on glazed ceramic vessels, glazed tobacco pipes, glass vessels,
beads, buttons, and the category "all other artifacts." It is
also used to describe the color of bisque-bodied refined ceramic wares
and the basic color of beads and non-metal buttons.
In its entirety, The Munsell Book of Color, The Glossy Collection
contains nearly 1600 color chips. The sheer number of colors made using
the complete collection unwieldy. In order to make the MCRS manageable,
DAACS staff assigned individual Munsell color codes to more encompassing
groups, using larger divisions of the three Munsell color dimensions:
Hue, Chroma, and Value. The color space was first divided according to
hue (Red, Yellow-Red, Green, Blue-Green, Blue, Purple-Blue, Purple, etc.).
Within each hue, colors with a chroma of 6 or lower were assigned to the
Muted category (e.g. Muted Green) while those with a chroma of 7 or higher
were assigned to the Intense category (e.g. Intense Green). The color
space was further divided into Light, Medium, and Dark categories to account
for color value. Light colors are those with a value of 7 and higher.
Medium colors have a value of 4, 5, or 6. Dark colors have a value of
3 and lower.
DAACS staff took a 25% sample of chips from each hue-value-chroma group,
thereby creating a smaller and more accessible version of The Munsell
Book of Color, The Glossy Collection. The result is 64 color groups
or MCRS Classes. The chart below provides examples of how individual Munsell
color codes map onto MCRS Classes:
| 2.5Y 9/4 |
Y=Yellow |
9 |
4 |
Yellow, Muted Light |
| 2.5G 3/8 |
G=Green |
3 |
8 |
Green, Intense Dark |
| 2.5RP6/12 |
RP=Red-Purple |
6 |
12 |
Red-Purple, Intense Medium |
| 2.5PB 3/4 |
PB=Purple-Blue |
3 |
4 |
Purple-Blue, Muted Dark |
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For some analytical purposes, the 64 MCRS Classes have proven unwieldy.
To circumvent this, DAACS assigned MCRS Classes to larger Basic Color
Groups with English color names (e.g. Red, Blue, Green). The price of
this additional simplification is the reintroduction of subjectivity.
Basic Color Groups are modal categorizations based on the color naming
intuitions of DAACS staff. Users are warned: Our color categories may
be different from yours. The only way to know is to consult The Munsell
Book of Color, The Glossy Collection.
In addition to the larger DAACS-MCRS groupings, a separate set of Munsell colors from The Glossy Collection are used specifically for measuring gradations in glaze color, not applied decorative color, on refined earthenwares and porcelains. Glaze colors on these wares are coded to the level of individual Munsell codes. This was done because the abridged Munsell color ranges created by the DAACS-MCRS failed to have a group of colors that captured variation within these specific ware types. Glaze-color coding may be particularly useful to researchers interested in measuring the differences between dark and light creamwares and dark and light pearlwares. The color chips used to measure these gradations are identified in the database as an individual Munsell code.
DAACS uses individual codes from the Munsell Soil Color Chart to measure
variation in the color of the interior and exterior surfaces of unglazed
coarse ceramics such as Colonoware, Native American ceramics, the unslipped
portion of North Midlands Slipware, and so forth. Interior and exterior
colors of glazed ceramics are measured using DAACS-MCRS (see above).
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AACS
staff has developed a detailed coding system for describing color. The
goal of this system is to provide a more objective method of describing
color by matching artifact colors to a Munsell code in either 
