TY - CONF A1 - Hahn, Oliver T1 - More than 25 years of ink analysis non-destructive testing of black writing materials N2 - Writing inks can be divided into soluble inks and dispersion inks. Soluble inks are based on plant or insect dyes forming a water solution. In the early European Middle Ages brown plant inks were usually produced from the blackthorn bark and wine. In contrast to these soluble brown inks, one of the oldest black writing materials was produced by mixing soot with gum arabic or animal glue dissolved in a small amount of water. From Pliny’s detailed account of the manufacture of various black carbon inks, we learn that producing pure soot of high quality was not an easy task in Antiquity. Iron gall inks are a borderline case between these two groups. They are produced from four basic ingredients: gallic acid, an iron-containing component, gum arabic as a binding media, and an aqueous medium such as wine, beer, or vinegar. By mixing gallic acid with soluble iron ions, a water-soluble ferrous gallate complex is formed. Exposure to oxygen leads to the formation of insoluble black ferric gallate pigment. Due to the variety of recipes and the natural origin of raw materials, there is a wide range of different components and impurities in writing inks. The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) together with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures in Hamburg (CSMC) has developed a protocol for ink analysis. It consists of a primary screening to determine the type of the ink and a subsequent in-depth analysis using several spectroscopic techniques (X-ray fluorescence analysis and vibrational spectroscopy). This contribution presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of historical writing inks to characterize distinguishable inks in manuscripts, to determine the origin of manuscripts, and to assign unknown fragments to time and place. T2 - Beyond the reconstruction of an Urtext: “About the history of the early Qurʾānic text with regard to digital research tools” CY - Hesse, Germany DA - 07.07.2025 KW - Archaeometry KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Material analysis KW - Cultural heritage PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-63906 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -