Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 41110
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Beach , Alison I., Anita Radini, and Monica Tromp
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Medieval Women’s Early Involvement in Manuscript Production Suggested by Lapis Lazuli Identification in Dental Calculus
  • Source: Science Advances 5, 1 ( 2019): Pages 1 - 8. Available online open access: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau7126 through the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Archaeology Artists Burials Human Remains Illumination of Manuscripts Monasticism Nuns
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 11- 12
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • 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. [Reproduced from the journal webpage online: http://advances.sciencemag.org/.]
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [Tromp]; Ohio State University [Beach]; Sapienza University of Rome [Radini]; University of Otago [Tromp]; University of York [Radini]
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2019.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 23752548