Rare blue pigment found in medieval woman’s teeth rewrites history

The discovery of a rare, expensive blue pigment in the dental plaque of a medieval woman’s skeleton is shedding light on hidden chapter of history, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Researchers studied burial remains from a medieval cemetery connected with a women’s monastery in Germany, where they believe a women’s community existed as early as the 10th century. There are few records of the monastery itself because it was destroyed in a fire after a series of nearby battles during the 14th century, but written records their date to 1244. The discovery of a rare, expensive blue pigment in the dental plaque of a medieval woman’s skeleton is shedding light on hidden chapter of history, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Researchers studied burial remains from a medieval cemetery connected with a women’s monastery in Germany, where they believe a women’s community existed as early as the 10th century. There are few records of the monastery itself because it was destroyed in a fire after a series of nearby battles during the 14th century, but written records their date to 1244. But blue flecks were embedded in her teeth. Multiple spectrographic analyses revealed the blue pigment to be ultramarine, a rare pigment made from crushed lapis lazuli stones. That the discovery was made in a rural German monastery is no surprise; books were being produced during this time in monasteries across the country. But women were not known to be the illustrators of such prized creations. There was little evidence for physical labor in her skeleton, which aligns with the understanding that German women in medieval monastic communities were often highly educated aristocrats or nobles. “Here we have direct evidence of a woman, not just painting, but painting with a very rare and expensive pigment, and at a very out-of-the way place,” said Christina Warinner, senior study author and anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in a statement. “This woman’s story could have remained hidden forever without the use of these techniques. It makes me wonder how many other artists we might find in medieval cemeteries — if we only look.”

Question: why did she place it behind her tooth and what was she painting?

Link https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/09/health/medieval-woman-ultramarine-teeth-study/index.html