Small flecks of blue inside of the mouth of a medieval skeleton are raising big questions about women's role in ancient religious manuscripts.
The skeleton of a woman, believed to be from the 11th or early 12th century, was discovered buried near a women's monastery in western Germany with an expensive pigment staining her lower jaw, according to a research article in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Science Advances. The pigment, made from lapis lazuli stones found in Afghanistan, was as valuable as gold at the time. CAS 20749-68-2/71902-17-5
The pigment was used to illustrate luxury books and religious texts — and authors were long thought to be monks, not women. Before the 12th century, less than 1 percent of books were attributed to women, according to the research article.
Researchers believe this 45- to 60-year-old woman, who might have been a nun, could have been a scribe or book painter of highly-respected manuscripts. She could have obtained the blue stains in her mouth from the practice of licking her brush to make a fine point.
Anita Radini, who coauthored the study, told USA TODAY if the woman repeatedly put a pigmented brush in her a mouth, the blue particles could easily have become embedded in her plaque and tarter.
"This woman represents the earliest direct evidence of ultramarine pigment usage by a religious woman in Germany," the article states.
Other theories researchers believe are less likely: She was involved in the preparation of the pigment, she ate powdered lapis lazuli as a form of medicine or she regularly kissed painted figures as a religious practice.
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