Archaeologists find traces of blue pigment on a 13,000 -year -old stone artifact in Germany
Blue pigments are absent in Paleolithic art. This was attributed to a lack of natural blue pigments or low visual salience of these shades. Using a series of archaeometric approaches, archaeologists have now identified traces of the bright blue mineral pigment azurite on a concave stone artifact of the paleolithic site of Mühlheim-Dietsheim, in Germany. This represents the first use of the blue pigment in Europe.
The three blue residue areas are present on the Mühlheim-Dietsheim stone artifact stoneware layer, Germany. Image credit: underliner and al., Two: 10.15184 / AQY.2025.10184.
Mineral and organic coloring pages were exploited by the two Neanderthals and Homo sapiens But appeared limited to the use of only pigments with black and red shades derived from charcoal, manganese dioxides and a variety of ochres (iron oxides).
These are well documented on different continents for a plethora of activities.
In the average European paleolithic (c. 300,000 to 40,000 years ago), Neanderthals seem to have used ochres and manganese dioxide not only for functional purposes, such as compound adhesives or for fire production production, but in addition for symbolic, potentially and controversial practices, including the production of serious / rocky art.
In Homo Sapiens, the use of pigments emerged at least 100,000 years ago and was associated with the emergence of “behavioral modernity”, perceived as a characteristic of cognitive complexity.
The intensity of the use of pigments throughout the Upper Paleolithic seems contradictory with a limited use of charcoal, manganese dioxide and ochres and raises important questions concerning the absence of blue pigments.
Until now, only one case of a blue-green pigment based on copper has been recorded for the Paleolithic from anthropomorphic figurines decorated on the Mal’ta site in Siberia (19,000 to 23,000 years ago).
No use of blue pigment was previously recorded in the European Paleolithic.
“Our discovery calls into question what we thought about the use of Paleolithic pigments,” said Archaeologist at the University of Aarhus, Izzy Wisher.
In their research, Dr. Wisher and his colleagues identified the blue pigment on a stone artefact with a concave morphology similar to a bowl of the Paleolithic outdoor site (c. 14,000-11 700 years) of Mühlheim-Dietsheim in Germany.
This represents the first and the first example of the use of blue Paleolithic blue pigments.
“The presence of Azurite shows that the Paleolithic had an in -depth knowledge of mineral pigments and could access a much wider color palette than we thought before – and they could have been selective in the way they used certain colors,” said Dr. Wisher.
“The stone bearing the traces of Azurite was originally interpreted as an open circuit lamp.”
“Now it seems to have been a surface or a mixture of mixture to prepare blue pigments – alluding to artistic or cosmetic traditions which remain largely invisible today.”
The results urge a redrawing from paleolithic art and the use of colors, opening new avenues to explore how the first humans expressed identity, status and beliefs through much more varied and vibrant materials than we imagined before.
“We hypothesize that Azurite was probably used in the Upper Paleolithic to a much greater extent than expected so far, depending on its presence in Mühlheim-Dietesheim and its probable accessibility in the landscape,” the researchers said.
“It is possible that the consumption of Azurite is limited to activities which do not preserve well in the archaeological file.”
“Blue pigments were obviously not used to decorate the walls of caves or portable art objects in the European Paleolithic, but can rather have been used to decorate the body.”
“Our results encourage a critical consideration of the use of color during the Upper Paleolithic to determine why certain shades have been used – or not used – for different artistic practices.”
The results were published this week in the journal Antiquity.
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Izzy Wisher and al. The first proof of the use of the blue pigment in Europe. Antiquitypublished online on September 29, 2025; DOI: 10.15184 / AQY.2025.10184
