Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus

Anita Radini; Monica Tromp; Alison Beach; E. Tong; C. Speller; M. McCormick; J. V. Dudgeon; M. J. Collins; F. Rühli; R. Kröger; C. Warinner

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau7126

Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus

Anita Radini, Monica Tromp, Alison Beach, E. Tong, C. Speller, M. McCormick, J. V. Dudgeon, M. J. Collins, F. Rühli, R. Kröger, C. Warinner^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of History

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

During the European Middle Ages, the opening of long-distance Asian trade routes introduced exotic goods, including ultramarine, a brilliant blue pigment produced from lapis lazuli stone mined only in Afghanistan. Rare and as expensive as gold, this pigment transformed the European color palette, but little is known about its early trade or use. Here, we report the discovery of lapis lazuli pigment preserved in the dental calculus of a religious woman in Germany radiocarbon-dated to the 11th or early 12th century. The early use of this pigment by a religious woman challenges widespread assumptions about its limited availability in medieval Europe and the gendered production of illuminated texts.

Original language	English
Article number	eaau7126
Number of pages	8
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	5
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau7126
Publication status	Published - 9 Jan 2019

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10.1126/sciadv.aau7126Licence: CC BY-NC

Radini_2019_SA_Medievalwomen's_CC
Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 2.01 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Alison Isdale Beach
- alison.beachst-andrews.acuk
- School of History - Professor of Medieval History
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus",

abstract = "During the European Middle Ages, the opening of long-distance Asian trade routes introduced exotic goods, including ultramarine, a brilliant blue pigment produced from lapis lazuli stone mined only in Afghanistan. Rare and as expensive as gold, this pigment transformed the European color palette, but little is known about its early trade or use. Here, we report the discovery of lapis lazuli pigment preserved in the dental calculus of a religious woman in Germany radiocarbon-dated to the 11th or early 12th century. The early use of this pigment by a religious woman challenges widespread assumptions about its limited availability in medieval Europe and the gendered production of illuminated texts.",

author = "Anita Radini and Monica Tromp and Alison Beach and E. Tong and C. Speller and M. McCormick and Dudgeon, {J. V.} and Collins, {M. J.} and F. R{\"u}hli and R. Kr{\"o}ger and C. Warinner",

note = "This work was supported by the Max Planck Society, the Leverhulme Trust (through a Leverhulme prize to C.S.), the M{\"a}xi Foundation Zurich (to F.R.), and the National Science Foundation (BCS-1516633 to C.W.).",

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AU - Radini, Anita

AU - Tromp, Monica

AU - Beach, Alison

AU - Tong, E.

AU - Speller, C.

AU - McCormick, M.

AU - Dudgeon, J. V.

AU - Collins, M. J.

AU - Rühli, F.

AU - Kröger, R.

AU - Warinner, C.

N1 - This work was supported by the Max Planck Society, the Leverhulme Trust (through a Leverhulme prize to C.S.), the Mäxi Foundation Zurich (to F.R.), and the National Science Foundation (BCS-1516633 to C.W.).

PY - 2019/1/9

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N2 - During the European Middle Ages, the opening of long-distance Asian trade routes introduced exotic goods, including ultramarine, a brilliant blue pigment produced from lapis lazuli stone mined only in Afghanistan. Rare and as expensive as gold, this pigment transformed the European color palette, but little is known about its early trade or use. Here, we report the discovery of lapis lazuli pigment preserved in the dental calculus of a religious woman in Germany radiocarbon-dated to the 11th or early 12th century. The early use of this pigment by a religious woman challenges widespread assumptions about its limited availability in medieval Europe and the gendered production of illuminated texts.

AB - During the European Middle Ages, the opening of long-distance Asian trade routes introduced exotic goods, including ultramarine, a brilliant blue pigment produced from lapis lazuli stone mined only in Afghanistan. Rare and as expensive as gold, this pigment transformed the European color palette, but little is known about its early trade or use. Here, we report the discovery of lapis lazuli pigment preserved in the dental calculus of a religious woman in Germany radiocarbon-dated to the 11th or early 12th century. The early use of this pigment by a religious woman challenges widespread assumptions about its limited availability in medieval Europe and the gendered production of illuminated texts.

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DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aau7126

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JO - Science Advances

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IS - 1

M1 - eaau7126

ER -

Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus

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Alison Isdale Beach

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