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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Reptile urine used as paint in ancient Peru

Snake waste the probable source of white colour on pottery from first millennium BC.
Paracas ceramic pot

This South American ceramic vessel was embellished with mineral-based pigments in the 3rd to 6th centuries BC. Credit: age fotostock/Alamy

Some of the most striking ceramics known from prehistoric South America are decorated with a pigment derived from reptile urine.

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Nature 564, 305 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07712-3

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