In a first-of-its-kind discovery, archaeologists in China have unearthed the 2,200-year-old burial of a woman whose teeth had been painted with cinnabar, a toxic red substance.
Cinnabar is a bright-red mineral that's made of mercury and sulfur. Although it's been used since at least the ninth millennium B.C. in religious ceremonies, art, body paint and writing, this is the first time it's been found on human teeth, according to a study published Feb. 24 in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.
