Medieval skeleton found with rare, expensive blue ink embedded in teeth, could rewrite women’s history

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.

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. 

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