TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina A1 - Schlanger, J. A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of black Medieval Inks: Characterization and Interpretation. Case Study of an 11th century Egyptian Corpus N2 - This study focuses on the analysis of a corpus of manuscripts found in Fustat (medieval Cairo, Egypt) in the biggest medieval “archive” found until now: the Cairo Geniza. The giant collection of mostly Jewish documents has been attracting scholars’ attention a lot but so far, the material aspects of these documents seem to have been mainly neglected. Application of scientific methods of analysis, especially X-Ray fluorescence characterization, contributes to our understanding of the materials used for production of manuscripts during the Middle ages. Our corpus of the 11th century manuscripts comprises manuscripts written by scribes belonging to three Jewish communities that co-existed in Cairo during this period: the Karaites, the so-called Jerusalemites (or Palestinian) and the so-called Babylonians (or Iraqi), three different communities with different traditions and different leaders. The differences manifest themselves also in the paleographical properties of the manuscripts produced within each community. Can we extend the differences detected by the paleographical analysis to differences in composition of the writing materials and especially the composition of the inks? Or can we relate the differences in the composition to the manuscript type (legal, private...), or to another criterion. In this presentation, we offer answers to some of the questions using statistical analysis of the measurements results. T2 - Konferenz Natural Sciences and Technology in Manuscript Analysis CY - Hamburg, Germany DA - 13.06.2018 KW - Ink KW - Manuscript KW - XRF analysis PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46044 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina A1 - Schlanger, J. A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Writing materials analysis of 11th century Cairo Genizah's fragments N2 - This study focuses on the analysis of a corpus of manuscripts found in Fustat (medieval Cairo, Egypt) in the biggest medieval “archive” found until now: the Cairo Geniza. The giant collection of mostly Jewish documents has been attracting scholars’ attention a lot but so far, the material aspects of these documents seem to have been mainly neglected. Application of scientific methods of analysis, especially X-Ray fluorescence characterization, contributes to our understanding of the materials used for production of manuscripts during the Middle ages. Our corpus of the 11th century manuscripts comprises manuscripts written by scribes belonging to three Jewish communities that co-existed in Cairo during this period: the Karaites, the so-called Jerusalemites (or Palestinian) and the so-called Babylonians (or Iraqi), three different communities with different traditions and different leaders. The differences manifest themselves also in the paleographical properties of the manuscripts produced within each community. Can we extend the differences detected by the paleographical analysis to differences in composition of the writing materials and especially the composition of the inks? Or can we relate the differences in the composition to the manuscript type (legal, private...), or to another criterion. In this presentation, we offer answers to some of the questions using statistical analysis of the measurements results. T2 - Konferenz 6th Meeting “X-ray and other techniques in investigations of the objects of cultural heritage” CY - Cracow, Poland DA - 17.05.2018 KW - Ink KW - Manuscript KW - XRF analysis PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46045 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina A1 - Schlanger, J. A1 - Hahn, Oliver A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Cairo Genizah documents of the 11th century: analysis of writing materials N2 - The Cairo Genizah is a well-known “archive” discovered in the 19th century in Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, a district in Old Cairo (Egypt), located south of the center of modern Cairo. The giant collection of mostly Jewish documents that vary in genres, languages and writing supports contains a large number of early medieval Hebrew manuscripts, mostly in fragmentary form. The larger part of the Cairo Genizah is stored today in the Cambridge University Library, containing about 200,000 fragments. The Genizah provides sources for the literary, linguistic, historical studies of the various aspects Jewish and non-Jewish life. As the documents attest, at least two Jewish communities co-existed in Fustat up to 11th century: a so-called Babylonian and Palestinian. These communities had different leaders, different traditions and lived independently. The differences manifest themselves also in the paleographical properties of the manuscripts produced by each community. Although Genizah manuscripts have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, the material aspects of these documents seem to have been largely neglected. The current study aims to obtain information on the composition of the writing supports and the inks used, in order to obtain insights on trade, local production techniques and social structures. Can we extend the differences detected by the paleographical analysis to differences in composition of the writing materials ? Can we relate the differences in the composition to a community, to the manuscript type (legal, private...), or to another criterion? T2 - Konferenz EAJS CY - Crakow, Poland DA - 14.07.2018 KW - Ink KW - Manuscript KW - XRF analysis PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46038 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina T1 - Beyond the text: What writing materials of the Cairo Genizah tell us N2 - Results: - Four types of inks were measured iron gall (vitriolic and non vitriolic), carbonic, mixed and vegetable inks. - We need to start analyzing systematically the organic part of the inks. - Great variety in the composition of the inks. - No correlation between the type of ink used and any other criteria apart from a personal preference. - Inks purchased by (some) scribes. - Reconstruction of the chronology of writing and signing of certain legal documents. - Comparison with documents written by the Muslim court. T2 - Ink Workshop CY - Munich, Germany DA - 28.06.2022 KW - Ink analyses KW - Manuscript studies KW - X-Ray fluorescence analyses KW - Cairo Genizah KW - Middle Ages PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-58874 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina T1 - Étude archéométrique des manuscrits de la Genizah du Caire: Ce que l'encre nous révèle des communautés juives T1 - Archaeometric study of the Genizah manuscripts of Cairo: What ink reveals to us about Jewish communities N2 - Conclusion et piste: Il semblerait qu’il n’existe pas de corrélation entre le type d’encre utilisés et d’autres critères recherchés à part une marque de préférence personnelle, sauf en ce qui concerne des documents religieux, auquel cas une différence se fait en function de la communauté. Les résultats réunis dans cette étude semble indiquer que les scribes achètent leur propre encre. L’analyse des encres peut nous aider à retracer une chronologie de l’écriture et signature de certains documents juridiques. Élargissement du corpus: - Comparaison avec des documents écrits par la cour du Qadi - Documents d’autres collections - Avec d’autres documents contemporains (Génizah Afghane) N2 - Conclusion and track: It seems that there is no correlation between the type of ink used and other criteria sought apart from a mark of personal preference, except with regard to religious documents, in which case a difference is made according to the community. The results gathered in this study seem to indicate that scribes purchased their own ink. Ink analysis can help us trace a chronology of the writing and signing of certain legal documents. Corpus expansion: - Comparison with documents written by the court of the Qadi - Documents from other collections - With other contemporary documents (Génizah Afghane) T2 - Codicologie quantitative et sociologie du livre médiéval : Faire corps par le livre CY - Paris, France DA - 31.01.2023 KW - Encre KW - Genizah du Caire KW - Archéométrie KW - Manuscrits KW - Moyen-âge PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58875 LA - fra AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina A1 - Nehring, Grzegorz A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Material Studies of Torah Scrolls at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -Prüfung N2 - In recent years the BAM has been focusing on the characterization of the writing materials of the medieval Torah scrolls. The challenge imposed by the study of this specific type of manuscript led to designing and building dedicated stages to ensure the safety of the scrolls during the analysis. Furthermore, the identification of multiple corrections executed in apparently identical inks required broadening the standard two-step protocol of near infrared reflectography and X-ray fluorescence to include multispectral imaging. This work has prepared the division to participate in the large collaborative project “To roll: Materialisierte Heiligkeit (Materialised Holiness)” based at the Free University, Berlin. The presentation will demonstrate the aims of the studies, preliminary results and the strategies adopted by the division 4.5 of the BAM. T2 - EAJS Congress Branching Out: Diversity of Jewish Studies CY - Frankfurt/Main, Germany DA - 16.07.2023 KW - Ink analyses KW - Manuscript studies KW - Torah Scrolls KW - X-Ray fluorescence KW - Middle Ages PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58881 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Schlanger, Judith T1 - Quelles informations une approche archéométrique peut-elle nous apporter pour enrichir notre connaissance des manuscrits hébreux et du monde de la Génizah du Caire ? N2 - L'archéométrie est une discipline riche qui peut nous apporter beaucoup d'informations sur l'étude des manuscrits et qui, conjuguée à la paléographie et la codicologie, peut s'apporter un outil précieux pour mieux appréhender les sociétés qui ont produits ces manuscrits. Nous verrons ici quelques exemples de techniques scientifiques non destructives, principalement appliqués à la Génizah du Caire, appliquées à l'étude des manuscrits. T2 - Tagung CY - Paris, France DA - 10.12.2018 KW - XRF KW - Ink KW - Archaeometry KW - Manuscripts KW - Non destructive PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-47098 LA - fra AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Cohen, Zina A1 - Schlanger, J. A1 - Hahn, Oliver A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Cairo Genizah documents of the 11th century: analysis of writing materials N2 - The Cairo Geniza is an “archive” discovered in the 19th century in Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, a district in Old Cairo (Egypt). The collection of mostly Jewish documents that vary in genres, languages and writing supports contains a large number of early medieval Hebrew manuscripts. The Geniza provides sources for the literary, linguistic, historical studies of the various aspects Jewish life. As the documents attest, at least two Jewish communities co-existed in Fustat up to 11th century: a so-called Babylonian and Palestinian. These communities had different leaders, different traditions and lived independently. The differences seem to manifest themselves also in the paleographical, codicological and some material properties of the manuscripts produced by each community. The aim of this project is to compare the inks used in the Jewish documents depending on different variables: support (paper, parchment), purpose of the manuscript (legal, private, religious), provenance of the scribe. For the determination of the inks type and composition we had to choose non-invasive, non-destructive and portable techniques to analyze the corpus directly on-situ. The analyses were carried out with a micro-X-ray spectrometer ArtTAX® (Bruker GmbH) and a digital stereomicroscope features built-in LED illumination at 395 nm and 940nm, Dino Lite. We would like to stress that though the methods of material analysis listed above have been successfully employed in the field of cultural heritage and conservation including ancient and medieval manuscripts they have not yet been used to study fragments from the Cairo Genizah. Therefore, we believe that this research project is a pioneering study that will provide new insights into the history of Hebrew writing materials, their production techniques and materials and, thus, contribute new data to the field of Hebrew paleography. T2 - Konferenz Art&Archaeology2018 – 3rd International Conference CY - Jerusalem, Israel DA - 09.12.2018 KW - XRF KW - Ink KW - Manuscripts KW - Cairo Genizah KW - Reflectography PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-47100 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -