Construction of this massive, ancient city created "an early golden age for architectural decoration," according to the researchers. While small, the fragments show beautifully rendered decorations based on plant forms, animals and courtly activities, such as people enjoying wine and dancing. The style is uniquely Arabic, but was possibly influenced by Central Asian artwork.
Clark, a professor in the Christopher Ingold Laboratories at University College London, said the toxic pigments were also "well known in Western Europe." Shades of green, including emerald green, are also sometimes poisonous elements of certain early European art, due to the presence of arsenic-containing copper arsenite and copper arsenoacetate.
Alastair Northedge, professor of art and Islamic archaeology at the University of Paris, is one of the world's leading western experts on Samarra. He recently authored the book, "Historical Topography of Samarra."
Northedge told Discovery News that he is "sure the conclusions are correct" in the recent study.
"It was interesting to see the painters were poisoning themselves with arsenic," he said.
Toxins aside, remains of Samarra, also known as the Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq, comprise a site of important archaeological relevance.
"The Abbasid Caliphate was one of the high points of world civilization," said Northedge, "but it has been more or less inaccessible because of Saddam, and now the war."
A new international project, www.samarrafinds.info, has been set up to better understand the site and what its art and architecture would have looked like during its golden age.
