
The Martin scale is an older version of color scale commonly used in physical anthropology to establish more or less precisely the eye color of an individual. It was created by the anthropologist
Rudolf Martin in the first half of the 20th century. Later he improved this scale with cooperation of
Bruno K. Schultz
Bruno may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname
* Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880)
* Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...
, leading to the
Martin-Schultz scale.
Original scale
The original Martin scale, summarized below, consists of 16 colors (from light blue to dark brown-black) that correspond to the different eye colors observed in nature due to the amount of melanin in the iris. The numbering is reversed in order to match the
Martin–Schultz scale
The Martin–Schultz scale is a standard color scale commonly used in physical anthropology to establish more or less precisely the eye color of an individual; it was created by the anthropologists Rudolf Martin and Bruno K Schultz in the first ...
, which is still used
in biological anthropology. In this case, the higher the number, the lighter the eye color.
Light and light-mixed eyes (16-9)
* 16: light-blue iris
* 15-14-13: blue iris
* 12-11: light-gray iris
* 10-9: dark-gray iris
Mixed eyes (8-7)
* 8: green iris
* 7: green-brown iris
Dark-mixed eyes (6-5)
* 6: hazel iris
* 5: light-brown iris
Dark eyes (4-1)
* 4: brown iris
* 3-2: dark-brown iris
* 1: black-brown iris
Older versions
Older versions of the Martin scale eye color chart have the following color divisions:
* 16-12: light and light-mixed iris
* 11-7: mixed iris
* 6-5: dark-mixed iris
* 4-1: dark iris
See also
*
Eye color
Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic character determined by two distinct factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris.
In humans, the p ...
*
Martin–Schultz scale
The Martin–Schultz scale is a standard color scale commonly used in physical anthropology to establish more or less precisely the eye color of an individual; it was created by the anthropologists Rudolf Martin and Bruno K Schultz in the first ...
*
Human eye
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin scale
Biological anthropology
Color scales
Eye color