2,200-year-old grave in China contains 'Red Princess of the Silk Road' whose teeth were painted with a toxic substance

2,200-year-old grave in China contains 'Red Princess of the Silk Road' whose teeth were painted with a toxic substance

Archaeologists in China have discovered a unique burial of a woman whose teeth had been painted with cinnabar, with a toxic red substance that contains mercury.

Cinnabar is a substance used by many civilizations of the time, always for artistic or religious purposes. However, it is the first time that traces of cinnabar are found on teeth. An exceptional discovery In the northwest of China, in a cemetery in the city of Turpan, archaeologists discovered the burial of a woman, more than two millennia old. According to a study published on February 24 in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Scien…

2,200-year-old grave of "Red Princess of the Silk Road" found in China with toxic cinnabar-stained teeth

In the Turpan Basin of the Xinjiang region, China, archaeologists uncovered remarkable evidence of a 2,200-year-old woman whose teeth were stained red with the highly poisonous mercury-based mineral known as cinnabar. While this discovery sheds light on the spiritual and cultural practices of ancient Silk Road civilizations, it is the first such case where the pigmenting of human teeth with cinnabar has been identified. The incredible find was m…