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Blue Gems In Teeth Illuminate Women's Hidden Role In Medieval Manuscripts (abc.net.au)

brindafella writes: The jaw bone of a woman who died around 1000-1200 AD has specks of precious lapis lazuli (mineral) in the plaque of her teeth. This indicates that this woman would have licked the brush used in preparing precious illuminated manuscripts at the women's monastery in Dalheim in western Germany. The study by researchers from German-based Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Britain's University of York showed that women, as well as men, were part of the production of the valuable manuscripts. "The researchers said this challenged long-held beliefs that women had played little role in the European Middle Ages in producing literary and written texts which came largely from religious institutions," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "Researcher Christina Warinner said this finding from the 11th century was unprecedented in showing more women were literate, educated and encouraged to read at that time."

127 comments

  1. Literate? by nagora · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't see why this implies literacy or even real education - many male monks were barely able to do more than copy what was in front of them and lots of priests in non-Italian countries could read out texts to their congregations without actually understanding Latin.

    Manuscripts were produced in production lines - does someone assembling radiator grills for Ford know how to design a car?

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    1. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Rather like "posting on Slashdot" implies "knowing what you're talking about".

    2. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Manuscripts were produced in production lines - does someone assembling radiator grills for Ford know how to design a car?" = How do you know all this? And why would you assume they don't as a default without evidence?

      Being in a convent and making fleurs and caligraphy all day was a pretty high honor and privilege of the few, comparatively. You're kind of going off the reservation to imply you know something about them that you don't really.
      It's a pure assumption on your part, perhaps a little more educated a guess on theirs? Who knows, maybe they even studied it in depth and have examples you don't know about, having not done so?

      Derp on your FUD, sir.

    3. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Let me introduce your mouth to my literate cock.

    4. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most people still could not care less about how a car works just as long as they turn the key and the heat comes on and the engine starts and everyone is buckled in. I suppose if you have the ability and means to peek into the engine and start figuring out what goes where, then you might

    5. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you know this?

      âBeing in a convent and making fleurs and caligraphy all day was a pretty high honor and privilege of the few, comparatively.â

    6. Re:Literate? by mentil · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Indeed. The Chinese Room thought experiment shows why copying text verbatim says nothing about comprehension of said text. Similarly, a photocopier doesn't understand the words and images it makes copies of.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    7. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously because I live in a convent and make fleurs and caligraphy all day, it's not for everyone and I'm honored to explain that to you. Derp.

    8. Re: Literate? by Opportunist · · Score: 0

      So you were told that it's a great honor that you are allowed to do your work.

      Yup, I believe you that you're in a convent, story checks out.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:Literate? by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't see why this implies literacy or even real education - many male monks were barely able to do more than copy what was in front of them and lots of priests in non-Italian countries could read out texts to their congregations without actually understanding Latin.

      Manuscripts were produced in production lines - does someone assembling radiator grills for Ford know how to design a car?

      Uhhh... no. The church regularly cracked down on education and what they called ‘feral latin’ among the clergy. Bishops and commissions of scholarly monks conducted regular visitations in parishes to judge and report the state of affairs. Plus, lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan and was at times more valuable than gold so this woman was an illustrator of some very high end texts. What is important about this discovery is more than anything else that it constitutes proof of the fact that women, presumably nuns, as well as monks were involved in the production of the most splendid manuscripts of the time because nobody except a first rate illustrator would have something as obscenely expensive as lapis lazuli in their dental plaque.

    10. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't realize you were among us, mother superior.

    11. Re:Literate? by ilguido · · Score: 5, Informative

      What is important about this discovery is more than anything else that it constitutes proof of the fact that women, presumably nuns, as well as monks were involved in the production of the most splendid manuscripts of the time because nobody except a first rate illustrator would have something as obscenely expensive as lapis lazuli in their dental plaque.

      Which is already a well known fact since sometime they signed their works.

    12. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The poster got insightful. Must be so. Check for lapus!!!

    13. Re:Literate? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's not "pure assumption". One of the reasons for the Carolingian Renaissance, for example, was the discovery by Charlemagne that his clergy knew shit (instead of knowing their shit).

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    14. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Funny as that might be she might have literally sucked the lapus off his priestly dong in some twisted sex thing. Here go scientiests: she must have been literate. Lol

    15. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But wait, this article says nice things about how women were treated and that triggers my insecurities and the researchers might be feminists because of how they talk and I'm UPSET there are feminists in the world so shut your pie hole before I shove a toxic masculinity sausage in it!!!

    16. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A barely literate renowned IT clerk living in San Jose and working for a 3 letter agency in Palo Alto has once posted on Slashdot that he had "blue gems" coming out from a taboo part of his body!

    17. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CROFLOL! were the gems egg shaped by any chance?

      Keep it up dude, this is getting better...

    18. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thatâ(TM)s called flipping pages, not to throw you a curveball. Everybody tries to do that. Flattery will get you nowhere

    19. Re:Literate? by nagora · · Score: 2

      Uhhh... no. The church regularly cracked down on education and what they called ‘feral latin’ among the clergy. Bishops and commissions of scholarly monks conducted regular visitations in parishes to judge and report the state of affairs.

      They had to crack down on it because it existed. And of course they were 100% uncorruptable and diligent, like all clergy everywhere are renowned as being.

      Plus, lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan and was at times more valuable than gold so this woman was an illustrator of some very high end texts. What is important about this discovery is more than anything else that it constitutes proof of the fact that women, presumably nuns, as well as monks were involved in the production of the most splendid manuscripts of the time because nobody except a first rate illustrator would have something as obscenely expensive as lapis lazuli in their dental plaque.

      Sure. None of which has any bearing on literacy.

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    20. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so only talk 1% of the time and listen the rest of the time

    21. Re:Literate? by nagora · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Manuscripts were produced in production lines - does someone assembling radiator grills for Ford know how to design a car?" = How do you know all this?

      Because I am literate.

      Monks were doing this into relatively recent times - it was a major source of income for many monasteries - and some of the workshop are still intact. In short, it wasn't a secret.

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    22. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The experiment leaves out metadata. In a modified experiment tagging some documents as important and others less so reduces the patterns that need to be found

    23. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not what literacy means, but you're on the right track... keep studying. Derp.

    24. Re:Literate? by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Uhhh... no. The church regularly cracked down on education and what they called ‘feral latin’ among the clergy. Bishops and commissions of scholarly monks conducted regular visitations in parishes to judge and report the state of affairs.

      They had to crack down on it because it existed. And of course they were 100% uncorruptable and diligent, like all clergy everywhere are renowned as being.

      Plus, lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan and was at times more valuable than gold so this woman was an illustrator of some very high end texts. What is important about this discovery is more than anything else that it constitutes proof of the fact that women, presumably nuns, as well as monks were involved in the production of the most splendid manuscripts of the time because nobody except a first rate illustrator would have something as obscenely expensive as lapis lazuli in their dental plaque.

      Sure. None of which has any bearing on literacy.

      It has a bearing on what TFA is about, I.e. that women were involved in the creation of some of the most exclusive illustrated manuscripts of the period, real masretmaster pieces like the Codex Aureus made for the emperor himself. When the radiator grill costs its weight in gold and the car the the grill is going into costs the yearly revenue of a whole county you do not let just any hack handle the assembly work. TFA made no claims about having proven that medieval women were literate. It has been well documented that women were literate since very ancient times. The literacy issue is a straw man you created. Also, I have read period documents written by clergy involved in visitations during the Middle Ages and these people took their work really seriously. Your completely unsubstantiated claim they all were corrupt is unfair. Ecclesiastical corruption did happen but it also regularly led to reform movements within the church and demands for reform among the civilian population. The biggest manifestation of this being the Protestant reformation.

    25. Re:Literate? by jittles · · Score: 1

      Plus, lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan and was at times more valuable than gold so this woman was an illustrator of some very high end texts. What is important about this discovery is more than anything else that it constitutes proof of the fact that women, presumably nuns, as well as monks were involved in the production of the most splendid manuscripts of the time because nobody except a first rate illustrator would have something as obscenely expensive as lapis lazuli in their dental plaque.

      All it proves is that women licked the brushes. Knowing the way that men have mistreated women over the centuries, I would not be surprised if a talented artist who didn't like to lick his own brush was given a woman to do the unpleasant task for him. I'm not saying that they did not have many female illustrators back then. Obviously no one has any idea how prevalent it was back then if this is such a big finding. But I think its silly to draw any sort of conclusion from this finding. Women had very few rights during this time and only the richest of families would have done much to educate their daughters.

    26. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's pure assumption despite your single cherry picked example, egotist moron who thinks it's easier to land in Melbourne Australia than on Mars, lol. (He really did say that verbatim, at length.. yeah, wow, speaking of "knowing shit" lol)

    27. Re:Literate? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      I don't see why this implies literacy or even real education - many male monks were barely able to do more than copy what was in front of them and lots of priests in non-Italian countries could read out texts to their congregations without actually understanding Latin.

      Manuscripts were produced in production lines - does someone assembling radiator grills for Ford know how to design a car?

      But ... but ... women! Women and ... er... "tech"? Ancient tech anyway. You go girl!!!

    28. Re:Literate? by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Speaking of Chinese and copying, I've seen (fake) western antiques produced in China by people who were obviously unfamiliar with the western alphabet, in that they copied shapes of letters in things like latin inscriptions without knowing what the letters were. The result was sort of a Chinese tattoo fail in reverse.

      So yeah, you could get people copying manuscripts who had little or no education, as long as they had good artistic skills. My guess as to why they had women do it is that they're better at precision work, which is why they were employed as recently as a few decades ago to do things like string ferrite core memory, and a few decades before that to paint watch dials.

    29. Re:Literate? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      To the surprise of no one, I have never said any such thing.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    30. Re:Literate? by sheramil · · Score: 1

      It's pure assumption despite your single cherry picked example, egotist moron who thinks it's easier to land in Melbourne Australia than on Mars, lol.

      Say that after you visit Moorabbin Airfield, boofhead.

    31. Re:Literate? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I have to note that I actually never said that. But I'm sure that the existence of lying ACs at this site won't come as any surprise to you.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    32. Re:Literate? by nagora · · Score: 1

      TFA made no claims about having proven that medieval women were literate. It has been well documented that women were literate since very ancient times. The literacy issue is a straw man you created.

      "Researcher Christina Warinner said this finding from the 11th century was unprecedented in showing more women were literate, educated and encouraged to read at that time."

      Also, I have read period documents written by clergy involved in visitations during the Middle Ages and these people took their work really seriously. Your completely unsubstantiated claim they all were corrupt is unfair.

      Just as well that I didn't claim that, then. I implied that coverage was patchy.

      Ecclesiastical corruption did happen but it also regularly led to reform movements within the church and demands for reform among the civilian population. The biggest manifestation of this being the Protestant reformation.

      Yet the reformation came out of frustration at the lack of reform over the previous 200 years. This is the same as the Latin point earlier - there was a revolt because there was a need for it. You're trying to have it both ways/

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    33. Re: Literate? by Shaitan · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Most people still could not"

      I'm extremely skeptical about the implication that people know more about how cars work on average than people in the 70's, 80's, and even 90's... when everyone knew about and worked on cars or their dicks would fall off.

    34. Re:Literate? by Shaitan · · Score: 2

      While crude, I think I think a valid point was made. This discovery could just as easily and more plausibly be explained by the woman performing sexual favors for a monk.

    35. Re:Literate? by Shaitan · · Score: 1

      "so this woman was an illustrator of some very high end texts"

      Or her mouth interacted with the illustrator of some very high end texts.

    36. Re:Literate? by Shaitan · · Score: 1

      "But wait, this article says nice things about how women were treated and that triggers my insecurities and the researchers might be feminists"

      Saying nice things about how women were treated and especially suggesting that women were educated and literate is definitely NOT consistent with the bias of feminists. Granted these agendas have no problem with contradictory positions "equal orgasms, women have sex drives just as strong as men" vs "men are obviously the primary drivers of all the sexual assault and rape."

      Literate and educated women makes it more difficult to put the overall lack of accomplishment and overall position of women in society on men and outright conflicts with the argument that women weren't allowed education by the evil menfolk.

    37. Re:Literate? by JamesTF007 · · Score: 0

      It became interesting to me if women decorated their teeth with precious stones, did they study exact sciences? Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson argues that educated people lived longer

    38. Re:Literate? by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      TFA made no claims about having proven that medieval women were literate. It has been well documented that women were literate since very ancient times. The literacy issue is a straw man you created.

      "Researcher Christina Warinner said this finding from the 11th century was unprecedented in showing more women were literate, educated and encouraged to read at that time."

      This has been a well known fact for centuries, the whole point of TFA and the significance of the discovery is actually presented in TFS which states: "The researchers said this challenged long-held beliefs that women had played little role in the European Middle Ages in producing literary and written texts which came largely from religious institutions,"

      Also, I have read period documents written by clergy involved in visitations during the Middle Ages and these people took their work really seriously. Your completely unsubstantiated claim they all were corrupt is unfair.

      Just as well that I didn't claim that, then. I implied that coverage was patchy.

      You dismissed my argument with the rather broad claim that most if not all clergy were universally corrupt and open to bribery: And of course they were 100% uncorruptable and diligent, like all clergy everywhere are renowned as being. ... which is complete bull crap.

      Ecclesiastical corruption did happen but it also regularly led to reform movements within the church and demands for reform among the civilian population. The biggest manifestation of this being the Protestant reformation.

      Yet the reformation came out of frustration at the lack of reform over the previous 200 years. This is the same as the Latin point earlier - there was a revolt because there was a need for it. You're trying to have it both ways/

      No you made the sweeping claim that all clergy everywhere is 100% corruptible And of course they were 100% uncorruptable and diligent, like all clergy everywhere are renowned as being. ... which is demonstrably a boldfaced lie. All I did was point out that the reformation of the 16th century was started by reform oriented clergy and supported by reform oriented civilians. The protestant reformation was not by any stretch of the imagination the only large scale reform in church history. There was a whole string of reform movements over the last 1000 yars.

    39. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, in the year 2350, they will find the jawbone of a beautiful model with Cheeto stains on her teeth and surmise that they are the same stains on a 21st century neckbearding IT guys fingers and wang. Clearly supermodels were only here to pleasure IT people in the year 2019

    40. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ironic thing is, that applies to you more than it does the person you were saying it to.

    41. Re:Literate? by nagora · · Score: 1

      No you made the sweeping claim that all clergy everywhere is 100% corruptible And of course they were 100% uncorruptable and diligent, like all clergy everywhere are renowned as being. ... which is demonstrably a boldfaced lie.

      Yeah, you need to work on your own literacy level.

      Firstly: I specifically challenged the claim about literacy being linked to the use of Lapiz for artwork - which is completely spurious. I have made no comment on the supposed belief that nuns did not make written texts as it's a field I don't know well, although I'm aware that nuns did do work so I'm not wildly surprised if they did some manuscript work, which was a good earner.

      Secondly: I used irony to attack your rather contradictory claim there was no problem with ignorant priests yet there were measures set up to deal with them. My statement, which you seem incapable of understanding, is really just saying that the priesthood was never perfect. That's nothing like saying that they were 100% corruptible. The fact that you keep quote the text you don't understand back at me doesn't change its meaning.

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    42. Re:Literate? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      This has been a well known fact for centuries, the whole point of TFA and the significance of the discovery is actually presented in TFS which states: "The researchers said this challenged long-held beliefs that women had played little role in the European Middle Ages in producing literary and written texts which came largely from religious institutions,"

      The interesting thing about this challenging of long held beliefs is that while on the surface, those who would claim women's oppression might be saying "see. See, SEE?! Muh oppression" - one of the fundamental drivers of modern feminism is that the Christian Church is one of the primary drivers of institutionalized patriarchal oppression of women.

      Some further thought into this matter might lead one to think that it is a strange oppressive patriarchy that elevates women to prestigious positions based on merit. People here are busy arguing about literacy, kinda missing the point that talent is a valuable asset as well.

      note - my point isn't that the angry desert gawd's followers don't have some severely screwed up ideas about women. It's just that this bit of historical knowledge sort of messes with the beliefs of modern feminism. Perhaps this knowledge should be suppressed?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    43. Re:Literate? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      All it proves is that women licked the brushes. Knowing the way that men have mistreated women over the centuries, I would not be surprised if a talented artist who didn't like to lick his own brush was given a woman to do the unpleasant task for him.

      This is the dumbest thing I've read all day. Are you getting some sort of weird sexual thrill imagining a bevy of beautiful naked women tied to posts, being forced to lick the male artist's brushes, and heaven knows what else?

      Because that's exactly what the bullshit you just wrote reads like.

      You must have flunked art class. Artists over the millenniums have all licked their own brushes, and there are a number of different points that can be placed on a brush. No way the artist doing the work would have someone else lick their brushes.

      The practice is pretty much discouraged today, as many of the pigments are poisonous.

      In fact, if you want a modern day horror story regarding brush licking, the plight of the radium girls is illustrative :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls . While this is sometimes used as a Casus belli against the patriarchy, it is an illustration of the reverse. We don't hear much about the plight of the men who produced the radium that poisoned these women - it is of no interest for some reason. Make no mistake, radiation is a true title 9 poison.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    44. Re:Literate? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      -or you could say they didn't know shit. Funny how that can mean the exact same thing as "knowing shit", but at least knowing *your* shit is unambiguous.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    45. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhhh... no. The church regularly cracked down on education and what they called ‘feral latin’ among the clergy.

      Uhhh... you appear to be agreeing with them.

    46. Re:Literate? by Megol · · Score: 1

      Do you have a nice blue smile to prove it?

    47. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The practice is pretty much discouraged today, as many of the pigments are poisonous.

      And if they had an inkling of that, which they probably did, it could explain why they had presumptuously expendable women lick the brushes; congratulations, you played yourself.
      Besides, with the patriarchy being what it was, why would they allow women to participate in such significant works? Surely it would have been an affront to their toxic masculinity. Or are you suggesting women were often treated with respect and held in high esteem in the middle ages? That's ridiculous. You sound like an male apologist, check your privilege.

    48. Re:Literate? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Perhaps even more interesting than the story is how desperate some people are to deny it. It's the same with what is widely accepted as the first ever novel - written by a Japanese woman. People will bend over backwards to find some reason why it wasn't first or why she was actually just a front for a man.

      Still going on too, happens all the time with female engineers on YouTube.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    49. Re:Literate? by nagora · · Score: 1

      Do you have a nice blue smile to prove it?

      Not since I stopped sucking the ends of Bics.

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    50. Re:Literate? by LaughingRadish · · Score: 1

      Chinese metalworkers trying to be gunsmiths cloned a lot of western firearms from around 1890 to 1935. Many of them have reverse Chinese tattoo fails to some degree as well as silly, surprising, and frightening design choices while simultaneously demonstrating great ingenuity and patience. It was like whoever made these things obviously knew how to make things out of metal, but had very little understanding on how to make a modern firearm. There are lots of show-and-tell videos on Youtube by Forgotten Weapons on these things.

    51. Re: Literate? by houghi · · Score: 1

      For now it is a sample of one. Does not even mean that she was allowed to do what she did.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    52. Re:Literate? by jittles · · Score: 1

      This is the dumbest thing I've read all day. Are you getting some sort of weird sexual thrill imagining a bevy of beautiful naked women tied to posts, being forced to lick the male artist's brushes, and heaven knows what else?

      I think you have the title for the dumbest thing anyone has written all day. And you are obviously the one who has weird sexual fetishes about women licking things. I am merely stating that women were most often treated as property and, while female artists have existed over the centuries, how many of them have created works that are considered to be fine art? I do not mean how many have created fine art, but how is their art perceived? Because the artistic work of women has been underappreciated even into modern society.

      Because that's exactly what the bullshit you just wrote reads like.

      Only to you, my friend, only to you.

      You must have flunked art class. Artists over the millenniums have all licked their own brushes, and there are a number of different points that can be placed on a brush. No way the artist doing the work would have someone else lick their brushes.

      Has there been some sort of historical record of brush licking that I have not found? Artists employed apprentices to do all kinds of prep work for them. I am sure that the prep work performed was entirely at the preference of the artist if they are skilled enough to be working with a pigment this expensive. And artists have all kinds of varying preferences just like every other human being on this planet.

      The practice is pretty much discouraged today, as many of the pigments are poisonous.

      In fact, if you want a modern day horror story regarding brush licking, the plight of the radium girls is illustrative :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls . While this is sometimes used as a Casus belli against the patriarchy, it is an illustration of the reverse. We don't hear much about the plight of the men who produced the radium that poisoned these women - it is of no interest for some reason. Make no mistake, radiation is a true title 9 poison.

      I am aware of the radium girls. While the work they did required a precise hand, they were not considered to be world class artists or they would be doing a completely different kind of work.

      And did you consider that perhaps the radium girls were exposed to far more radiation and in a more harmful manner than the miners themselves? Naturally occurring radium mostly emits alpha particles. We all know that alpha particles rarely cause any harm unless they are released by an internal emitter. So imagine how nasty some ingested radium paint would be for a painter versus a miner who is wearing thick gloves and clothes as they work in a mine environment.

      Anyway, I still stand by my point. The lapis lazuli in this woman’s mouth proves nothing except oral exposure to the paint. The only reason it could potentially point to her being an artist due to the fact that the finding was made in Germany, where convents were run by women and were institutes of learning. Had this finding occurred in England it would mean nothing because convents were run by men and were not always pleasant places to be.

    53. Re:Literate? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      There is a reason why it was not called "writing" but "book painting" in medival times.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    54. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While crude, I think I think a valid point was made. This discovery could just as easily and more plausibly be explained by the woman performing sexual favors for a monk.

      So ... you think the monk would have put a crazy expensive substance on his dick ... and then gotten a blowjob? Freaky!

      Wait, no, I can totally see that happening ... introducing, the Caviar and gold leaf BJ, for the man who has everything.

      Aw, hell, who am I kidding, I'm sure rule #34 applies and some rich guy would be going "Oh, Tuesday, that was fun".

      *sigh* Wonder if I could start a crowdfunding campaign to get one? Donors get nothing in return, but I get a caviar and gold leaf BJ. You get no less than most crowdfunding things, so why not contribute to a good cause?

    55. Re:Literate? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      Unlikely, and if so, extremely unlikely to be stained with ultramarine/ lapis lazuli. When the process for making the dye Prussian Blue was discovered (by accident) in the early 1700s, it pretty rapidly replaced the extremely expensive lapis lazuli (the best of which comes only one small area in Afghanistan, which has been mined for around 9 kiloyears).

      The image in TFA shows the stained tooth encrustation. If the image is anything like true-colour, then the actual dye content is probably less then 10%.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    56. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The most conservative, and often correct, interpretation of new evidence is whichever interpretation requires the least amount of assumption and the least rejection of established theories. Always beware of people reaching for a radical conclusion, because they're usually wrong.

    57. Re:Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Plus, lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan and was at times more valuable than gold so this woman was an illustrator of some very high end texts.

      You're jumping to conclusions. All we have for data is that lapis lazuli made it into her mouth. We have ZERO information about how it got there. Any rational interpretation of this information is one that requires the least conjecture and contradicts the least amount of "established" theory. Your conclusion is only warranted if the only likely path for lapis lazuli into the oral cavity is through producing illustrations. For all we know she was tasked with washing the brushes after the men were done with them. Maybe she stole them. We don't know. Finding one solitary piece of evidence that can be interpreted in dozens of different ways, but choosing to interpret in a way that contradicts all of established research is irresponsible and foolish.

      What is important about this discovery is more than anything else that it constitutes proof of the fact that women, presumably nuns, as well as monks were involved in the production of the most splendid manuscripts of the time

      It proves nothing except that a single woman from the era had access to lapis lazuli. The rest is all projections of your desired outcome.

    58. Re: Literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fewer people are working on cars (new cars are too proprietary and locked down), but thanks to the internet and youtube, I feel like people who're still working on cars know more than ever.

    59. Re:Literate? by dinfinity · · Score: 1

      It does not. The Chinese Room shows that some thought experiments are just really shitty.

      Go ahead, ask your Chinese Room to answer these questions and think about the implications:
      - "How many fingers was I holding up 10 seconds ago?"
      - "Do you think Stacy likes me?"

    60. Re:Literate? by mentil · · Score: 1

      The answer to both would be "I don't know of these things" or else a guess or vague statement, since the box has no sensors to acquire answers to those questions (and isn't expected to). In any case, the output would imply comprehension of the input despite no actual comprehension.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    61. Re:Literate? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The practice is pretty much discouraged today, as many of the pigments are poisonous.

      And if they had an inkling of that, which they probably did, it could explain why they had presumptuously expendable women lick the brushes; congratulations, you played yourself.

      Evolution shows that men are the expendable sex, and humanity evolved in that direction. This is the great irony of modern feminism. As modern women try to emulate men, feminism has convinced them that they actually want to downgrade to the lesser sex.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    62. Re:Literate? by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Relax. This is just a "feel good" piece for women. It allows the dominated and helpless but ever so strong woman of today feel better about her lowly position in life. She can now say, "see? women have been respected in the past, you should respect me now."

      Of course, all of this shit is insane. We make true what we believe to be true. You can never escape: if you act like shit, you will get treated like shit. if you act respectfully, you will be treated respectfully. The problem is that people want to be respected but not act in a respectful manner.

      I really wish these types of stories would stop appearing on Slashdot. Very few of the people here are actually programmable in that manner. There is too much critical thought to overcome with this bullshit.

      Social Agendas have no place on Slashdot.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    63. Re:Literate? by strikethree · · Score: 1

      LOL. You two are talking right past each other. Neither one of you is fully understanding what the other has to say. Stop being invested in being right and try to honestly figure out what he is talking about. The same advice goes to the person you are addressing. Seriously, you BOTH have great points to discuss, but the intended meaning keeps getting sidelined by... stupid ego bullshit?

      An example:

      Your completely unsubstantiated claim they all were corrupt is unfair.

      Ecclesiastical corruption did happen

      The person you are responding never used the word "all". He said there was corruption and you even confirmed that but you also changed his argument first to lessen the truth of what he was trying to get at.

      I could show the same sort of absurd misunderstandings from the person you are speaking to, but I got the urge to laugh at this point, so this is where I stop. Go ahead and spin it as me attacking you and fully supporting the other guy's argument. That is your modus operandi... but be aware that I support neither of your arguments. I see truth in both and I see purposeful misunderstanding from both sides.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    64. Re:Literate? by dinfinity · · Score: 1

      That is a terrible defense.

      It would not imply comprehension (ever had a conversation with a chatbot?). With the Chinese Room only able to answer encyclopedic questions, it is blatantly obvious that the Chinese Room would not even come close to passing the Turing test, so to imply (as the CR does) that it would 'simulate understanding' is retarded. The CR has no (artificial) state, mental modeling or any of the things required to actually understand things and as soon as you start adding those into the thought experiment, the entire "it's just symbol manipulation" bit completely falls apart.

      Just accept it: the Chinese Room is a terrible thought experiment and it does not show what you think it shows.

  2. It's pretty amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    how much can be extrapolated starting from a few blue flecks on an old tooth.

    1. Re:It's pretty amazing by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 1

      It's pretty amazing that historians have managed to take the burden of proof off themselves and put it onto their critics. Imagine if scientists behaved that way, or prosecutors.

    2. Re:It's pretty amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But if you know how dental plaque forms, you know the thickness of the lapis lazuli found in her plaque indicates repeated exposure for years. Considering she lived in a women's monastery and considering it wouldn't make sense for her to be eating something more valuable than gold on a regular basis, she probably was an artist using her lips to form the tip of her brush. But you know, because this discovery involves concluding women were skilled, educated artisans, we as men are threatened they might come back from the grave and take OUR JOBS!!! HOW aRe WE MENs iF We AllOw the womENs tO WORK??!

    3. Re:It's pretty amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's pretty amazing that historians have managed to take the burden of proof off themselves and put it onto their critics. Imagine if scientists behaved that way, or prosecutors.

      Did you even read the original article?

      Yeah, yeah, stupid question. This is /.

    4. Re: It's pretty amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You cant refuse evidence without proof. Critics hands are tied until they also become experts

    5. Re: It's pretty amazing by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure how to interpret this. For example suppose somebody tried to collect evidence of the afterlife by collecting testimonies of people with near death experiences. Would the burden of proof then be on me to show their testimonies were not evidence of the afterlife? If I couldn't prove (as opposed simply providing alternative plausible narratives) that they were not really experiencing a supernatural event, would I be forced to accept this as evidence of the supernatural? Would my hands be tied as a critic because I am not recognised as an expert in life after death?

      There are transferable skills in using evidence and as you move from one discipline to another you see different standards in just how much evidence and how much rigor is required. This is true within sciences and I would guess it is true in different eras of history, due to evidence becoming more scarce in the more distant past. It's not the fault of the historians that they have less to work with than practitioners of hard sciences, but silly to pretend it doesn't fundamentally alter the nature of their subject.

    6. Re:It's pretty amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does being butthurt all the time actually hurt, or is it fun being a miserable fat fuck with shitty died hair and a vandalized body?

    7. Re:It's pretty amazing by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Meh. It is how most crimes get "solved". All evidence that we have points to X person doing this. Someone has to be punished. X person gets punished... all without ever fully validating that the assumptions based on the evidence are incontrovertible.

      Beyond a Reasonable Doubt? ROFLMAO. Being "right" is all that matters. Being correct is not relevant.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  3. Really? Impressive. by thesupraman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A woman in a woman's monastery wrote manuscripts? Who would have thought..

    "The researchers said this challenged long-held beliefs that women had played little role in the European Middle Ages in producing literary and written texts which came largely from religious institutions,"

    So the long help belief was that women's monasteries, which they obviously knew existed, just sat there twiddling their thumbs? I suspect people are projecting their modern biases pretty damn hard there. Back then life was hard, and it is pretty solid common sense that gender was much LESS of an issue, as survival was a little higher up the priority list.

    There would seem to be a lot of navel-gazing going on here, and very little common sense being applied, on both sides given that a few flecks on a single jawbone would hardly be statistically significant either.

    Doesn't stop them applying the spin cycle to it though it seems.
    "Researcher Christina Warinner said this finding from the 11th century was unprecedented in showing more women were literate, educated and encouraged to read at that time."

    All that from flecks in a single jawbone. Impressive(ly spun)

    1. Re:Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Doesn't stop them applying the spin cycle to it though it seems." - What are you doing now, and how much thought have you put into it compered to their study? Exactly. You couldn't even make that accusation legibly, let's face it.

    2. Re:Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Woman who didn't know how to read executed for repeatedly licking the priceless books is also possible.

    3. Re: Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Licking priceless books? Sounds like gambling. Baby needs a new pair of shoes. Lick lick.

    4. Re:Really? Impressive. by ilguido · · Score: 4, Informative

      So the long help belief was that women's monasteries, which they obviously knew existed, just sat there twiddling their thumbs? I suspect people are projecting their modern biases pretty damn hard there. Back then life was hard, and it is pretty solid common sense that gender was much LESS of an issue, as survival was a little higher up the priority list.

      Really, I googled "women monasteries illuminated manuscripts" and I found a book from 2009 about the subject (fifth result, the four before that were all about this article). Its introduction reads: "Although the majority of scribes who can be affiliated with women’s monastic manuscripts were themselves, in fact, women monastics, a number of their male contemporaries also contributed to monastic manuscript holdings". So it is actually the other way around: we knew about women scribes.

      It is either (post)modern bias or just marketing ("look, we found something new, something none could believe"!) or probably both.

    5. Re:Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      His "accusation" is more of exposing brutal bias flaws leading to clearly wrong conclusions. He's not attacking women, put your white knigh hat on the table again. He's only showing how stupid this research seems to be from start to finish. These are probably just yet another agenda-advancing fake news.

      Nice captcha by the way: "signaled".

    6. Re: Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Licking priceless books? Sounds like gambling. Baby needs a new pair of shoes. Lick lick.

      Since bad jokes like this are usually born out of people's own fetishes it only seems fair to ask: Is this you they are looking for?
      Police search for man who licked doorbell for three hours in California

    7. Re: Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those who are ignorant of history are condemned to use slashdot to mirror their later-day biases and crotchets. C'mon, at least show some nuance or read some actual histories of the time.

      Maybe learn what historiography is.

      The lack of Humanities education is beginning to tell on Western civilisation.

    8. Re:Really? Impressive. by jittles · · Score: 0

      Back then life was hard, and it is pretty solid common sense that gender was much LESS of an issue, as survival was a little higher up the priority list.

      You do realize that women were considered property during this time, yes? First of their father and, upon marriage, of their husband? Most of the women in these monasteries were bastard children of upper class men. Others were the extra daughters that upper class men did not want to take care of financially. Fathers were expected to pay a dowry when their daughters were married. So to avoid that they stuck them in monestaries. But you are right, there was total gender equality back then.

    9. Re:Really? Impressive. by Truekaiser · · Score: 1

      If i had mod points i'd give you some. Thanks for pointing out the holes in the 'paper'.

    10. Re:Really? Impressive. by bonedonut · · Score: 1

      they didn't twiddle their thumbs, they were busy licking the brushes for whoever was scribing!

    11. Re: Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. Fake news.

      Women and men worked side by side in a lot of peasant life. Which accounts for most of humans throughout most of recorded history. And before recorded history we can assume they worked their separate roles as well, not as master slave. Do you see apes using a master slave hierarchy with their females?

      Most countries during most times didn't treat women as property.

      Sounds like a catchy phrase from a movie, doesn't stand up to logic or history though.

    12. Re: Really? Impressive. by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      Peasants were serfs, that is property already.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    13. Re: Really? Impressive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha I love this.

      So you're saying the only reason you don't view women as garbage is because society has told you not to? This implies you still think poorly of women, but you're not allowed to act on it.

      As a man I can tell you this isn't how I feel at all. So it's difficult to believe that any time throughout history men didn't think as I do, at least in part.

      It's difficult for me to believe that most men throughout all history DIDN'T care about women as you assert.

      I think this boils down to a 'you' problem, in the same way it would be a 'them' problem if they're actually trading women, or other humans, as property.

    14. Re: Really? Impressive. by jittles · · Score: 1

      Nope. Fake news.

      Women and men worked side by side in a lot of peasant life. Which accounts for most of humans throughout most of recorded history. And before recorded history we can assume they worked their separate roles as well, not as master slave. Do you see apes using a master slave hierarchy with their females?

      Most countries during most times didn't treat women as property.

      Sounds like a catchy phrase from a movie, doesn't stand up to logic or history though.

      I don't know where you get your history from but most people in this era were property of their king and their lord. They were serfs who had almost no rights and could be treated as they wished. Your lack of historical knowledge does not translate into my being a misogynist or thinking that women are garbage. And never did I say that all men were complete primates and treated women like shit. But you go ahead and think whatever makes you happy. You can go ahead and pretend like practices like jus primae nocits ever existed or that nobles were allowed to do whatever they pleased while a woman could, in some cultures, be executed for promiscuity when men remained unpunished for the same crime. You probably fail to realize that there are still countries in existence that have laws like this as we speak.

    15. Re:Really? Impressive. by strikethree · · Score: 1

      I suspect we need a few more clones of you.

      No agendas? No twisted thinking? Critical thought? Honest analysis?

      What the fuck are you doing on this planet. They are going to send someone to kill you soon. We are all supposed to be insane. Russian Interference! Trump! Hillary! No time to think, act now!

      Can I go home now? Please?

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  4. Imagine that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Women weren't locked up in the kitchen chained to the stove for all the time before the 1960s.

    1. Re: Imagine that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose men sometimes try to avoid having the facts explained to them so it is convenient to keep people in a kitchen making food instead

    2. Re: Imagine that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing like backbreaking labor over a fire!

  5. Proof that the Patriarchy exists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    only in the brains of stupid feminists, who are clearly less intelligent than women of the past.

  6. oh come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and we know that this could not have happened by having a serving girl make the powder and say use her spit to test with scribes to see that it was the write constancy? we know this because we like to believe differently

    1. Re: oh come on by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      Monasteries and convents didnt have "serving girls". And the artists probably mixed their own ingredients, especially something as expensive as lapis lazuli. They would most likely make just as much as they needed at the time to avoid wastage.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re: oh come on by Shaitan · · Score: 0

      "Monasteries and convents didnt have "serving girls"

      At least that is what their PR was all about. A monastery which handled works using lapis lazuli might well have allowed exceptions for rock star artists. This is how things have worked from the dawn of time. Also there are other perks that might well have been unofficially afforded such a monk as well that would explain how something he handled ended up in her mouth.

    3. Re: oh come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha that slant

      Why do you assume monks would be as corrupt as you?

      This sounds like projection. You do realize women can be more than slaves right?

  7. fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Reading the comments here, both pro and con, notice how the reactions are clearly only extrapolation from the commentator's bias, pro/con women/s lib or right/left. Almost no comments constitute a rational examination.
    Are we as a species too stupid to survive? We buy religions from a huckster sci/fi writer who wrote "the way to get rich is to start a religion' and vote for politicians who write "the art of the deal is to tell them what they want to hear" or sloganize with "I'm with her."

    1. Re: fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shoddy writing. Fire the authors. Not good

  8. A woman? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are they assuming xer gender?

    1. Re: A woman? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only after they gathered all the bones and teeth did they find out it was a woman. Inmediately they made a three-dimensional model and simulated how she might have done her writing, and then for good measure, how she might have lived her life.

    2. Re: A woman? by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      She might have identified as a feather or an eagle or a tree. They shouldn't assume she was a woman just based on biology. Rather insensitive.

    3. Re: A woman? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its more probable he identified as a male monk.

    4. Re: A woman? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cross-dressing wasn't that uncommon.

      England had a whole bunch of documented women posing as men in the military.
      Possibly the reason could be because it was punishable by death for women to be in the military, but I choose to believe that they identified as male.

  9. Again women's contribution is being minimized. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny

    The evidence clearly indicates her to be the original blue tooth inventor. But, as usual, they demote her to be a mere copyist while some man will be credited with the "invention" of blue tooth.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Again women's contribution is being minimized. by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      It would seem to show prior art.

    2. Re:Again women's contribution is being minimized. by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Funny

      Pray excuse me. I meant "prioress art".

      I cannot _believe_ I failed to make that pun.

    3. Re:Again women's contribution is being minimized. by pjt33 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sorry to spoil your chronology, but she postdates Harald Bluetooth.

  10. Interesting story, pathetic feminist slant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there any historical revelation that desperate feminists won't try and use to push their manhate agenda ?

    1. Re: Interesting story, pathetic feminist slant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No.

      Despite the gynocentric societies most people live in, feminists will find a way to oppress themselves...normal people need to stop supporting their insanity.

      ITS TIME TO STOP.

  11. Maybe she was a little crazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and enjoying sucking on chunks of lapis lazuli?

  12. Oh my... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    quick, call Lorde... this is a pre-made lyric waiting to happen.

  13. ooooo mysteries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hahaha wtf? People do realize women have been around just as long as men right?

    Why does everyone these days assume women basically didn't do anything until 2018??

  14. Citation, mr. pseudo-literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Citation? I assume you're not just making this up without one, right?

    1. Re:Citation, mr. pseudo-literate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Citation? I assume you're not just making this up without one, right?

      Google what was done in a scriptorium you uneducated, lazy, cynical fuck in an age where nearly all of human knowledge is at your disposal with fewer keystrokes than you have already used to let everyone know you are an uneducated, lazy, cynical fuck.

    2. Re:Citation, mr. pseudo-literate? by nagora · · Score: 1

      Citation? I assume you're not just making this up without one, right?

      Google what was done in a scriptorium you uneducated, lazy, cynical fuck in an age where nearly all of human knowledge is at your disposal with fewer keystrokes than you have already used to let everyone know you are an uneducated, lazy, cynical fuck.

      Exactly.

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  15. Clearly you are a lying faggot INCEL Republican by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly wrong = you have clearly no proof of that, and are clearly a lying faggot.

  16. My Jawbone Identification Skills Might Be Wrong by atropa · · Score: 1

    But I'm pretty sure that's Saint Scholastica.

    --
    moo
  17. Jumping to conclusions by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    This may not mean that nuns copied manuscripts, it might just mean that a woman dressed in drag to join a monastery!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  18. Could Lapis have been used in Beauty Products? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe the lapis was from her lipstick?

  19. Not an unprecedented discovery by forghy · · Score: 2

    It's already a known fact that women in monasteries worked as copyist and miniaturist.

    Case in point, the following https://art.thewalters.org/det... is a work of noun Claricia, in 12th - 13th century.

    And this is a list of female copyists: http://edu.let.unicas.it/womed... from year 750 to 1550.

    Note: the attribution to a male or to a female is difficult because copyist and miniaturist rarely signed their works, especially in the earlier centuries. One can try to trace the monastry of production of the manuscript but, quite often, monastries hosted both friars and nuns in separate wings of the same complex of buildings. So, even this method is not guaranteed to ascertain the gender of the miniaturist / copyist.

  20. Two rather more detailed sources. by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
    York University have a press release which the cited article regurgitates. https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeo...

    The original paper is at http://advances.sciencemag.org..., and is Bronze Open Access with the PDF at http://advances.sciencemag.org...

    A skim read (because I'm more interested in the mineralogy than the politics that is obsessing most commenters) tells me :

    In addition, although the importation of this expensive foreign pigment into medieval Europe is first materially attested in the 10th century (15), its presence in an otherwise unremarkable womenâ(TM)s community in northern Germany powerfully testifies to the expansion of long-distance trading circuits during the 11th-century European commercial revolution. [...]
    Female biological sex was confirmed using both osteological and genetic methods (16)[...]
    To isolate the blue particles for further study, we first sought to demineralize the surrounding dental calculus using a dilute HCl solution (0.05 M), as is typically performed during microbotanical analysis. However, we found that this procedure led to color instability and loss (fig. S3); by comparing colors of the acid-demineralized calculus to reference pigments, we confirmed that using an acid as a decalcifying agent is detrimental to color stability and particle size in lapis lazuli, azurite, malachite, and vivianite (fig. S4; see the Supplementary Materials). We then tested an alternate approach on a second dental calculus sample from the same individual, decontaminating the calculus surface and then disrupting the calculus structure by sonication in ultrapure water. Calculus fragments and mineral particles released by this procedure were transferred to a microscope slide without mounting media or coverslip and allowed to dry under controlled conditions. Inspection under light microscopy revealed more than 100 particles of deep blue color (Fig. 2), many of which were observed in situ still encased within fragments of dental calculus (Fig. 2B). [...]
    (The colour intensity in the supplied figures is remarkable. I've not seen lapis lazuli under a microscope for decades, but vivianite is a little more common, and is just dull in comparison. )
    With the exception of lazurite (the dominant blue mineral in lapis lazuli), all blue pigments that were available and used during the medieval period contain metal (copper, cobalt, or iron) as a major element in their composition [...]
    The archaeological blue particles lack copper, cobalt, and iron, thereby excluding pigments containing these metals as major elements, but they closely resemble the elemental composition of lazurite, the sulfur-containing tectosilicate that gives lapis lazuli its dark blue color.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  21. "women's monastery"?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought men became monks and lived in a monastery (possibly also an abbey?), and women became nuns and lived in a nunnery or convent?

    I have not heard of women in a monastery before. Indeed, I thought there was a strict segregation of the sexes, with no women permitted beyond the public areas.

    Leaving that aside, I'm far from surprised that women might have spent time copying illuminated manuscripts.

  22. who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    seriously this is not news, women did shit in history.. they didn't all live in bubbles and sit around doing nothing

  23. How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even after having RTFA, I'm left with the question: How does this conclusion actually follow from the evidence observed?