Residues of an unusual pigment discovered in oral tartar of a female buried around 1,000 years earlier at a middle ages abbey show that she might have been an elite scribe or book painter.
These pigment flecks originate from ultramarine, an unusual blue pigment made by grinding lapis lazuli stone imported from Afghanistan into powder, state archaeologist Anita Radini of the University of York in England and her associates. Elaborately detailed spiritual manuscripts produced throughout Europe’s Middle Ages, from around 1,600 to 500 years earlier, were often embellished with uncommon and pricey products, consisting of ultramarine and gold leaf. The brand-new discovery, reported January 9 in Science Advances, supports current historic research study recommending that it wasn’t simply monks who prepared these highly embellished books Nuns did, too.
