TY - CHAP A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Hahn, Oliver ED - Michel, C. ED - Friedrich, M. T1 - Detection of Fakes: The Merits and Limits of Non-Invasive Materials Analysis N2 - This paper addresses the sensitive issue of authenticating unprovenanced manuscripts of high monetary value to certify they are genuine. Over the last decade, the popularity of material studies of manuscripts using non-destructive testing (NDT) has increased enormously. These studies are held in especially high esteem in the case of suspicious writings due to the methodological rigour they are reputed to contribute to debate. We would like to stress that materials analysis alone cannot prove that an object is genuine. Unfortunately, audiences with a humanities background often tend to disregard the technical details and treat any published interpretation of instrumental analysis as an objective finding. Four examples are outlined here to illustrate what questionable contributions the natural sciences can make in describing manuscripts that have actually been forged. KW - Fakes KW - Non-invasive analysis KW - Limitations PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-517202 SN - 978-3-11-071422-7 DO - https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333 SN - 2365-9696 VL - 20 SP - 281 EP - 290 PB - Walter de Gruyter GmbH CY - Berlin/Boston AN - OPUS4-51720 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Almogi, O. A1 - Kindzorra, Emanuel A1 - Hahn, Oliver A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Inks, pigments, paper: in quest of unveiling the history of the production of a tibetan buddhist manuscript collection from the tibetan-nepalese borderlands N2 - The Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) microfilmed two sets of the rNying margyud 'bum: in 1989 the set stored in the National Archives in Kathmandu (NAK) and in 1992 another set during an expedition to Nubri, Samagaon. Both microfilming were carried out under the local director of the Nepal Research Centre (NRC) in Kathmandu, and who has also discussed the two (and other) rNying ma rgyud 'bum sets on several occasions.2 The NAK and Nubri rNying ma rgyud 'bum sets were extensively studied and catalogued (Almogi) within the framework of the Tibetology sub-project "The Manuscript Collections of supervision of Franz-Karl Ehrhard, who was at the time the the Ancient Tantras (rNying ma rgyud 'bum): An Examination of Variance," conducted at the Researcher Group "Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa," University of Hamburg (2008-2011). KW - Writing materials KW - Paper KW - XRF KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.2143/JIABS.37.0.3132062 SN - 0193-600X VL - 36/37 SP - 93 EP - 118 PB - Dep. CY - Lausanne AN - OPUS4-34615 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira ED - Ciner, P. ED - Nunez, A. T1 - Writing Materials of the Dead See Scrolls N2 - The first manuscripts from the Qumran caves were found in 1947. Within the following 10 years, clandestine and legal excavations revealed some 900 highly fragmented manuscripts from the late Second Temple period. This collection is generally known as Scrolls of the Judea Desert or Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). For many years after their discovery, text analysis and fragmeents attribution were the main concern of the scholars dealing with the scrolls. The uncertain archaeological provenance of the larger part of the collection added an additional difficulty to the formidable task of sorting some 19000 fragments. After 60 years of scholar research the question of origin, archaeological provenance and correct attribution of the fragmenst are still hotly debated. To dtermine a possible contribution to the debate from the point of view of writing materials, we used otpical and electron microscopy, various X-ray based techniques as well as vibratiional sprectroscopy. We validated our approach with SY - based studies using the advantages of the synchroton radiation source with respect to the benchtop devices. Our laboratory studies showed that often production and storage locality could be distinguished thenks to the specific residues ("fingerprint") they left on the material. Moreover, we have diescovered that diferrent parchment production processses coexisted in the antiquity, and the resulting writing materials can readily be distinguished. T2 - 2nd International Conference on Patristic Studies CY - San Juan, Argentina DA - 28.03.2017 KW - Dead Sea Scrolls KW - Text analysis KW - Fragmented manuscripts KW - X-ray based techniques KW - Archaeological provenance PY - 2021 SN - 978-2-503-59149-0 DO - https://doi.org/10.1484/M.STR-EB.5.1211558 SN - 2566-073X VL - 0095/ 19 SP - 325 EP - 331 PB - Brepols CY - Turnhout, Belgium AN - OPUS4-54593 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - The contribution of material analysis to the identification of forged writing materials N2 - This paper addresses the role of material analysis in the current discussion on the authenticity of unprovenanced fragments. It will show that material analysis alone, especially its non-destructive variety, cannot prove that the object is genuine. The best material analysis can do, after all appropriate tests have been conducted, is to announce that nothing has been found that contradicts the assumption of genuineness. Moreover, the results of the material analysis can never be used as the only justification of authentication in cases of composite objects such as manuscripts or epigraphs. The most effective approach for testing suspicious artifacts has been established by forensic science. Not limited to non-invasive analysis, this approach relies on validated techniques that usually require the extraction of samples and comparison with reference materials and are capable of delivering unambiguous results. In contrast, the analysis of suspicious manuscripts has to overcome additional obstacles such as the heterogeneity of historical material, the scarcity of suitable reference standards, and restriction to strictly non-invasive techniques. We discuss the reliability of the testing protocol based on the non-destructive multi-instrumental approach developed by the BAM for the investigation of writing materials. In the case of the DSS, it relies on comparison with the genuine DSS fragments studied over the last 10 years. T2 - SBL Interenational 2017 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 07.08.2017 KW - Cultural assets KW - Forgery PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-43481 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - DSS: Materials Characterisation by means of IR-ERS, SY µ-FTIR, µ-XRF and SEM T2 - CHRESP Conference CY - Ljubljana, Slovenia DA - 2008-11-10 PY - 2008 AN - OPUS4-18168 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Davis, K. A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Feldman, Ines A1 - Krutzsch, M. A1 - Rimon, H. A1 - Justnes, Å. A1 - Elgvin, T. A1 - Langlois, M. ED - Hempel, C. ED - Zahn, M. ED - Jokiranta, J. T1 - Nine dubious “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments from the twenty-first century N2 - In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them through the Kando family. In this article is presented evidence that nine of these Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments are modern forgeries. KW - Dead Sea Scrolls KW - NDT KW - Forgery KW - Papyrology PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-12341428 SN - 0929-0761 SN - 1568-5179 VL - 24 IS - 2 SP - 189 EP - 228 PB - Brill CY - Leiden AN - OPUS4-42869 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Unveiling secrets of the Dead Sea scrolls N2 - The first manuscripts from the Qumran caves were found in 1947. Within the following 10 years, clandestine and legal excavations revealed some 900 highly fragmented manuscripts from the late Second Temple period. This collection is generally known as Scrolls of the Judea Desert or Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). For many years after their discovery, text analysis and fragments attribution were the main concern of the scholars dealing with the scrolls. The uncertain archaeological provenance of the larger part of the collection added an additional difficulty to the formidable task of sorting some 19000 fragments. After 60 years of scholar research the questions of origin, archaeological provenance and correct attribution of the fragments are still hotly debated. In many cases material characterization of the scroll writing media deliver answers to the questions stated above. Furthermore, issues concerning corrosion pathways, ancient technologies and contemporary conservation activities demand in depth material studies. To obtain a comprehensive picture we use optical and electron microscopy, various X-ray based techniques as well as vibrational spectroscopy. We validated our approach with SY- based studies using the advantages of the synchrotron radiation source with respect to the bench-top devices. Our laboratory studies showed that often production and storage locality could be distinguished thanks to the specific residues (“fingerprint”) they left on the material. Moreover, we have discovered that different parchment production processes coexisted in the antiquity, and the resulting writing materials can readily be distinguished. Within our recent studies we tentatively reconstructed the history of the Genesis Apocryphon. Written with a corrosive ink on a tanned parchment, it was found rolled together with an additional layer of non-inscribed non-tanned parchment. Chemical composition of the ink is in agreement with a 1st century AD ink recipe recorded in Materia Medica by a Greek physician, Pedanius Dioscorides. Study of the scroll deterioration as a function of time and exposition to light during the post-discovery period allows us to speculate that the scroll was rather “archived” than hidden in Cave 1. These results confirm the theory of Eliezer Sukenik who believed Cave 1 to be a “geniza”. A similar study of the Temple Scroll, discovered in the cave 11 indicates that the scroll was rather hidden than “archived”. T2 - 2nd International Conference on Patristic Studies CY - San Juan, Argentina DA - 28.03.2017 KW - Dead Sea scrolls PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-43442 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Instrumental studies of writing inks: from typology to composition N2 - The course presents panorama of historic writing inks, their use the methods of their identification. First, we discuss the possible types of the inks and show how one can determine these types using very simple instrumentation. The change of the inks from those based on soot to the iron-gall inks commonly used in the Middle Age constitutes the second half of the course. T2 - Workshop CY - Buenos Aires, Argentina DA - 23.03.2017 KW - Ink KW - Carbon ink KW - Iron-gall ink PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-43445 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Material studies of inks N2 - The course presents panorama of historic writing inks, their use the methods of their identification. First, we discuss the possible types of the inks and show how one can determine these types using very simple instrumentation. The change of the inks from those based on soot to the iron-gall inks commonly used in the Middle Age constitutes the second half of the course. T2 - Summer School Hebrew Codicology and Palaeography Based on the Collection of the State and University Library Hamburg CY - Hamburg, Germany DA - 07.09.2017 KW - Iron-gall ink KW - Carbon ink KW - Mixed ink PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-43448 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Hahn, Oliver ED - Hahn, Oliver ED - Breiding, Sonja ED - Doil, Thorsten T1 - Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse als bildgebendes Verfahren - Die Visualisierung von Materialität N2 - Naturwissenschaftliche Verfahren sind inzwischen fester Bestandteil bei der materialwissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Kunst- und Kulturgut und bei der Entwicklung von Konservierungskonzepten zum Erhalt des kulturellen Erbes. Insbesondere werden zunehmend bildgebenden Verfahren wie die Computertomographie, die Radiographie oder die Multispektralanalyse verwendet, um die für das menschliche Auge nicht sichtbare Inhalte wie Vorzeichnungen, Pentimenti oder innere Strukturen zu visualisieren. Die entstehenden „neuen Bilder“ verändern jedoch die Sichtweise auf das kulturelle Artefakt, da sie tiefere Einblicke in den Herstellungsprozess, den Aufbau oder den Erhaltungszustand geben können. Weiterhin dokumentieren sie Veränderungen, denen ein Objekt unterworfen wurde. Anhand der Untersuchung von zwei Objekten mit dem Röntgenfluoreszenzportalscanner Jet Stream soll das Verhältnis Original – Digitalisat – Rekonstruktion diskutiert werden. T2 - 8. N.i.Ke.-Workshop: Materialität - Das Objektverständnis der vielfältigen Disziplinen im Bereich von Kunst- und Kulturgut CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 26.11.2015 KW - Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Archäometrie PY - 2017 SN - 2567-1251 SP - 68 EP - 73 PB - Druckerei G. Bohm CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-43484 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Parchment N2 - This lecture will present history of parchment based on written sources and chemical examination of antique, medieval and modern parchment. Our studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls writing surfaces show that they can be divided roughly into three groups: leather, parchments of a light tint, and those of various shades of brown. The latter ones are invariably tanned, whereas the middle group is characterized by the presence of various inorganic salts. Some of the pale parchments, among them the Temple Scroll (11Q19), are remarkably similar to medieval European parchment. Therefore we have formulated the working theory that in the Judaea of the Hellenistic period two different parchment-making traditions existed side by side: an ‘eastern’ one (represented by the tanned parchments of Qumran, closely resembling Aramaic documents from the fifth century BC, and a ‘western’ one (represented by the untanned/lightly tanned ones similar to early Christian Greek parchments). This division has found support during our studies of the Geniza fragments, in which Babylonian and Palestinian traditions seem to follow the “eastern” and “western” technologies, respectively. T2 - Manusciences 17 CY - Frejus, France DA - 10.09.2017 KW - Parchment KW - Leather PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-43478 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Material analysis: authentication or forgery detection? N2 - This paper addresses the sensitive issue of authentication of the un-provenanced manuscripts of high monetary value if certified to be genuine. Over the last decade the popularity of material studies of manuscripts using non-destructive technologies (NDT) has increased enormously. In the case of suspicious writings these studies are held in especially high esteem due to the methodological rigor they are reputed to contribute to debate. Moreover, audiences from a humanities background often tend to disregard the technical details and treat any published interpretation of instrumental analysis as an objective finding. The paper will discuss the currently available methods and testing protocols for writing materials stressing the advantages and limitations of the non-invasive analysis. As an example we will consider the recent announcement of the possibility of non-invasive dating of carbon inks focusing on the validation required for a testing method. We will make clear that material analysis alone cannot prove that the object is genuine. We should rather adopt the effective approach for testing suspicious artifacts that has been established by the forensic science. Here, not the authentication, but the determination of the forgery stands in the focus of the work. T2 - SBL Annual Meeting 2017 CY - Boston, MA, USA DA - 18.11.2017 KW - Cultural assets KW - Forgery PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-43483 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Delhey, M. A1 - Kindzorra, Emanuel A1 - Hahn, Oliver A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Material analysis of sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts preserved in Nepal N2 - This article presents the findings resulting from the material analysis of several Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts from a corpus partly preserved in Nepal, viz. in the National Archives, Kathmandu (NAK), and in the Kaiser Library (KL), which is likewise situated in Kathmandu. The analysis was undertaken in March 2013. The colleagues of the NAK allocated a room in their precincts to us, where we could set up our mobile laboratory, and gave us access to the required manuscripts from their holdings. The officials of the KL, in turn, allowed us to take some of their valuable and ancient manuscripts to the NAK. In this way, we were enabled to conduct multi-instrumental studies on writing materials of great antiquity and interest. KW - Writing materials KW - Paper KW - XRF KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2015 SN - 0193-600X VL - 36/37 SP - 119 EP - 152 PB - Dep. CY - Lausanne AN - OPUS4-34616 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rabin, Ira ED - Andrews, T. L. ED - Macé, C. T1 - Ink identification to accompany digitalization of the manuscripts N2 - To date, the Geld of codicology (i.e., the study of manuscripts as physical objects) has not addressed the question of Chemical composition of writing materials. Recent advances in non-destructive testing provide us with tools for investigating physical and Chemical properties of manuscripts. Combining the expertise of codicologists and palaeographers with that of experimentalists in the fields of chemistry and physics may add a further valuable dimension to the study of manuscripts and their historical context. The color of inks (often characterized as brown, black, or gray) is not a suitable criterion for distinction and Identification, since its appearance is prone to changes due to variants resulting from production and to the phenomena of corrosion and aging. One of the goals of our research at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung in Berlin, Germany (BAM) is to work out a simple, mobile method for the typological Identification of various writing materials that cannot be differentiated by visual appearance alone. In the future, this method should be integrated into the procedure used to digitize manuscripts and make palimpsests visible. KW - Manuscripts KW - Iron gall ink PY - 2014 SN - 978-2-503-55268-2 SP - 293 EP - 307 PB - Brepols Publ. CY - Turnhout AN - OPUS4-34773 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Rabin, Ira ED - Elgvin, T. T1 - The Temple Scroll: Wrapper and fragment. MS 5095/2, MS 5095/4 N2 - The following specification of experimental methods refers to tests performed in 2009–10 on vellum,textile, ink, pottery, leather, and palm-fibre tool, as described in the chapter written by me and Roman Schütz. KW - Dead Sea Scrolls KW - The Temple Scroll PY - 2016 SN - 978-0-5672-8571-3 SN - 978-0-5671-1300-9 VL - 71 SP - 327 EP - 338 PB - Bloomsbury T&T Clark AN - OPUS4-43949 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -