{"id":464399,"date":"2025-10-01T00:17:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T00:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/464399\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T00:17:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T00:17:19","slug":"archaeologists-find-traces-of-blue-pigment-on-13000-year-old-stone-artifact-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/464399\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Find Traces of Blue Pigment on 13,000-Year-Old Stone Artifact in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue pigments are absent in Paleolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues. Using a suite of archaeometric approaches, archaeologists have now identified traces of the vivid blue mineral pigment azurite on a concave stone artifact from the Paleolithic site of M\u00fchlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. This represents the earliest use of blue pigment in Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The three areas of blue residue present on the sandstone layer of the stone artifact from M\u00fchlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. Image credit: Wisher et al., doi: 10.15184\/aqy.2025.10184.<\/p>\n

Mineral and organic colorings were exploited by both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens but have appeared limited to the use of only black and red-yellow hued pigments deriving from charcoal, manganese dioxides and a variety of ochres (iron oxides).<\/p>\n

These are well-documented across different continents for a plethora of activities.<\/p>\n

In the European Middle Paleolithic (c. 300,000-40,000 years ago), Neanderthals seem to have used ochres and manganese dioxide for not only functional purposes, such as compound adhesives or for fire-lighting, but additionally for symbolic practices, potentially and controversially including producing cave\/rock art.<\/p>\n

In Homo sapiens, pigment use emerged at least 100,000 years ago and has been associated to the emergence of \u2018behavioral modernity\u2019, perceived as a hallmark of cognitive complexity.<\/p>\n

The intensity of pigment use throughout the Upper Paleolithic appears contradictory to a restricted use of charcoals, manganese dioxide and ochres, and raises important questions regarding the absence of blue pigments.<\/p>\n

Until now, only one case of a copper-based blue-green pigment has been recorded for the Paleolithic from decorated anthropomorphic figurines at the site of Mal\u2019ta in Siberia (c. 19,000-23,000 years ago).<\/p>\n

No blue pigment use has been previously recorded in the European Paleolithic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur discovery challenges what we thought we knew about Paleolithic pigment use,\u201d said Aarhus University archaeologist Izzy Wisher.<\/p>\n

In their research, Dr. Wisher and colleagues identified the blue pigment on a stone artifact with a concave, bowl-like morphology from the Paleolithic (c. 14,000-11,700 year ago) open-air site of M\u00fchlheim-Dietesheim in Germany.<\/p>\n

This represent the first and earliest example of blue pigment use from the European Upper Paleolithic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presence of azurite shows that Paleolithic people had a deep knowledge of mineral pigments and could access a much broader color palette than we previously thought \u2014 and they may have been selective in the way they used certain colors,\u201d Dr. Wisher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stone bearing the azurite traces was originally interpreted as an open-circuit lamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, it appears to have been a mixing surface or palette for preparing blue pigments \u2014 hinting at artistic or cosmetic traditions that remain largely invisible today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings urge a rethink of Paleolithic art and color use, opening new avenues for exploring how early humans expressed identity, status, and beliefs through materials far more varied and vibrant than previously imagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hypothesize that azurite was likely used in the Upper Paleolithic to a much greater extent than hitherto assumed, based on its presence at M\u00fchlheim-Dietesheim and its likely accessibility in the landscape,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that azurite use was restricted to activities that do not preserve well in the archaeological record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlue pigments were evidently not used to decorate cave walls nor portable art objects in the European Paleolithic but may instead have been used to decorate the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results encourage a critical consideration of the use of color during the Upper Paleolithic to determine why certain hues were used \u2014 or not used \u2014 for different artistic practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results<\/a> were published this week in the journal Antiquity.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Izzy Wisher et al. The earliest evidence of blue pigment use in Europe. Antiquity, published online September 29, 2025; doi: 10.15184\/aqy.2025.10184<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue pigments are absent in Paleolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[155160,2000,299,1824,30697,49019],"class_list":{"0":"post-464399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-azurite","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-paleolithic","13":"tag-pigment"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115296039467701268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}