Dental calculus on the lower jaw where a medieval woman entrapped lapis lazuli pigment, seen below center tooth. The semi-precious stone was highly prized at the time for its vivid color and was ground up and used as a pigment. From this discovery, scientists concluded the woman was an artist involved in creating illuminated manuscripts, a task usually associated with monks. The find is considered the most direct evidence yet of a woman taking part in the making of high-quality illuminated manuscripts, the lavishly illustrated religious and secular texts of the Middle Ages. And it corroborates other findings that suggest female artisans were not as rare as previously thought. (Christina Warinner/Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History via AP)
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