A 2023–2024 re-examination of a small stone palette from the open-air site of Mühlheim-Dietesheim, about 16 kilometers east of Frankfurt, revealed particles of azurite, the earliest confirmed blue pigment in Europe. The artifact had been unearthed in the 1970s but only now did a team led by archaeologist Dr. Izzy Wisher of Aarhus University identify the deep-blue copper mineral.
“ The discovery changes everything we thought we knew about the use of Paleolithic pigments in Europe,” said Wisher, according to CNN.
The palette, roughly 20 centimeters wide and able to hold about 30 cubic centimeters of pigment, came from a campsite linked to the Magdalenian culture, a hunter-gatherer society that ranged across Western Europe between about 17,000 and 12,000 years ago. The settlement’s other finds—stone tools, arrowheads, and a circular ring of stones thought to have supported a tent—dated the palette to around 13,000 years ago.
Researchers used recently developed micro-analytical techniques to confirm that the bright particles were ground azurite. Because blue minerals are scarce and difficult to process, their presence suggested that late Ice Age communities pursued and handled rare materials far beyond the familiar red and black pigments traditionally documented in European rock art.
The study team noted that the small quantity of azurite and the near absence of blue in surviving Paleolithic imagery implied a purpose other than wall painting. Possible applications included body decoration, textile dye, or ornamentation of organic items that rarely survive. “ The blue color may have had a deeper symbolic purpose, perhaps related to protection or spiritual belief,” the researchers wrote.
Few older examples of blue pigment exist worldwide; only Siberian figurines dated to 19,000–23,000 years ago carry earlier traces. The find therefore broadens the timeline for human engagement with the color and opens new paths for studying how early societies used rare hues to convey identity, status, or belief.
“Our work is likely just the tip of an iceberg, and new detection methods should let us reconstruct the Stone Age world in a fuller spectrum,” said Wisher. The full study appeared in the journal Antiquity.
Assisted by a news-analysis system.