This double special issue does consist of twelve papers plus Introduction delivered at the conference Ancient science and technology of colour. Pigments, dyes, drugs and their perception in antiquity, that took place in Pisa on 28-29 April 2022. On that occasion, historians of ancient science and technology, archaeologists, and historians of ancient art met in a joint, wide-ranging exploration of the production methods, uses, and conceptualisations of colour substances in the Graeco-Roman world as well as in the ancient Near East. In the two issues dedicated to the meeting are presented the results produced by strongly multi-disciplinary studies, that requested the investigation of a variety of sources, from ancient scientific and technical literature to archaeological data and results of chemical analysis. In fact, both textual and archaeological records testify to the array of techniques and procedures devised by generations of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman metalworkers, dyers, glassmakers, painters, who were all called technitai (namely, ‘artisans’) in the Graeco-Roman world.