TY - CONF A1 - Bonnerot, Olivier A1 - Ghigo, Tea A1 - Colini, C. A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - What information can Raman spectroscopy provide about pure and mixed carbon inks? N2 - Two main types of inks coexisted in Early Medieval times: carbon inks and iron-gall inks. Many variations within these types existed, depending on the source of raw materials and their proportion. In addition to these, an intermediate mixed type of ink, with both iron and carbon as colouring agents, was sometimes used, especially in early Arab manuscripts. Two projects are being conducted currently at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) concerning the analysis of inks with Raman spectroscopy. The first one aims at comparing the spectra of different carbon inks from Antiquity to the Middle Ages with Raman spectroscopy, while the second one focuses on the identification and comparison of mixed inks. For the first project, several carbon inks were made using different sources of carbon (pine soot, olive oil soot, date seeds charcoal etc.) and various binders (fish glue, gum Arabic, proteinic binder etc.), following antique recipes. These inks were then analysed with Raman spectroscopy and fitted with the “two-peaks” and the “three-peaks” models following the procedure described by Goler et al., to help spotting differences between the spectra, depending on the recipe. Some samples were then disposed in an ageing chamber at 80°C and 60% RH and analysed again in order to determine whether changed in the spectra are observable. The procedure proposed by Goler et al. to date inks with Raman spectroscopy was also evaluated during this process. Although several carbon inks could be distinguished from their spectra, no differences were seen between aged and fresh samples. Furthermore, experimental conditions were found to have such a significant influence that reliable dating of inks through Raman spectroscopy seems dubious. T2 - 9th International Congress on the Application of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology CY - Évora, Portugal DA - 24.10.2017 KW - Carbon ink KW - Mixed ink KW - Dating KW - Raman PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-42942 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -