Rare and Expensive Blue Pigment Found in the Dental Calculus of a Medieval-Era Woman (4 of 8) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Rare and Expensive Blue Pigment Found in the Dental Calculus of a Medieval-Era Woman (4 of 8)

Caption

During the European Middle Ages, Afghanistan was the only known source of the rare blue stone, lapis lazuli. Lapis lazuli contains different minerals that contribute to its unique appearance, including lazurite (blue), phlogopite (white), and pyrite (gold). This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Jan. 9th, 2019, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by A. Radini at University of York in York, UK, and colleagues was titled, "Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus."

Credit

Christina Warinner

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