Paint specks in teeth illuminate a medieval woman's artistry

摘要

Remnants of a rare blue pigment found in the dental tartar of a woman buried about 1,000 years ago at a medieval monastery in Germany indicate that she may have been an elite scribe or book painter.The pigment flecks come from ultramarine, made by grinding lapis lazuli stone imported from Afghanistan into powder, say archaeologist Anita Radini of the University of York in England and colleagues. Elaborately illustrated religious manuscripts made during Europe's Middle Ages were sometimes decorated with rare and expensive materials, including aquamarine. The new discovery, reported January 9 in Science Advances, supports recent historical research suggesting that it wasn't just monks who produced these books. Nuns did, too.