Anita Radini, and Christina Warinner put the scientists in a medieval Tooth under the microscope, was it actually something else entirely. The Tooth came from an archaeological dig in Dalheim, near Paderborn, in the case of a medieval monastery graveyard had been investigated. He belonged to the skeleton of a woman who had lived sometime between 997 and 1162 there in the monastery and worked. Radini from scraped now there are tiny amounts of dental stone, in order to seek for Clues to the diet of the people at that time. Starch particles were, what they wanted to find. However, she came across something Surprising.
Radini, an archaeologist at the University of York, and Warinner, a microbiologist at the Max-Planck-Institute, found traces of lapis lazuli in the Tartar of a woman. Most of us are familiar with lapis lazuli, as bright blue gem stone chains, rings, or earrings. Even then, it was an extremely valuable product that had found its way from a certain Region in Afghanistan to Dalheim. Almost 6000 miles it was on the silk road to Germany to be transported. Globalization is nothing so Modern.
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These are the teeth of a nun from the middle ages contained traces of Lapis Lazuli
©Christina Warinner manufacturer
The beautiful stone has not been processed in the early middle ages, but only to jewelry, but – finely-ground – as a Pigment. Among other things, it has been used, then under the name of ultramarine, for the stunning book art of the time. And this is precisely the aspect that caused a stir after the discovery of the two researchers was known. Because, actually, it was assumed that almost exclusively men – educated monks – made in the writing of the monasteries, offices the valuable manuscripts.
Some experts, the scientists controlled indoor contact, expressed doubts that this woman, it was probably a nun, was a writer who was able to work at the Illustrate of the magnificent books of the precious substance. Finally, ultramarine, then 1:1 with Gold offset, a single gram was worth a small fortune. And the bright blue color was only used for important religious motifs, such as the mantle of the virgin Mary. Radini reported that an expert suggested that the woman was probably rather the Brushing of the writing tube in contact with the blue Pigment. She has written more scrubbed than?
other theories have been examined: Had kissed the nun, perhaps often, a religious book, and in the process, the Pigment? This is a practice that only came 300 years later in fashion. Or she has taken up lapis lazuli as a medicine? In ancient Greek and Islamic texts, a corresponding treatment is mentioned. However, the traces of which were found in the teeth of the nun come, explicitly, of the fine Pigment grinding Lapis, as it was actually used for the painting or book production.
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Also, for this Illustration from the “Liber Scivias” (1220) by Hildegard of Bingen, ultramarine was used
©University library, Heidelberg
The scientists came to a clear result. Either the nun had made in the monastery of the Pigment. Or she was, in fact, book artist, and had the ultramarine to the teeth, because you had to lick for this is often your brush in the Form. The latter is far further sources from that time: In a male monastery, is only 60 km from Dalheim, was about a settlement from the year 1168, and a “sister.” was entrusted with the production of a luxury manuscript, you should restore from expensive materials like parchment, leather and silk.
Also, if most of the medieval books, the writer signed it with their names, come from men’s hands, which is obviously also women had an important role in the production of the valuable writings. You don’t have it bound, apparently, to anyone on the nose.
source: “The Atlantic”
