TY - JOUR A1 - Nehring, Grzegorz A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Distinguishing between seemingly identical inks using scanning μXRF and heat maps N2 - This study will present a new approach to distinguishing writing inks that have the same elemental compositions and visual appearances. The approach is based on displaying the intensity of elemental distributions as heat maps that represent data recorded with a scanning μX-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The heat maps present the data so as to facilitate digitally identifying and distinguishing between inks used to produce, correct, and reink two medieval Torah scrolls. As ritual objects, Torah scrolls had to be written in accordance with exacting standards that evolved over time. This requirement led to successive stages of modifications, sometimes over centuries. Both vitriolic and non-vitriolic inks used to modify Torah scrolls can be visually identical to each other. Furthermore, different non-vitriolic inks usually have an identical elemental composition. The solid material analysis evidence and its presentation as heat maps made it possible to discriminate between original and altered portions of text that in some cases would have been impossible. Our interdisciplinary work brought together conservation, material science, paleog-raphy, and philology to enable the identification of complex stratigraphy in multiple stages of production, correction, and reinking. ©2 0 2 2 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. KW - Spectroscopy KW - Scanning micro-X-ray fluorescence KW - Vitriolic iron-gall inks KW - Non-vitriolic iron-gall inks KW - Heat maps KW - Torah scrolls KW - Scribal corrections PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-557271 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2022.07.007 SN - 1296-2074 VL - 57 SP - 142 EP - 148 PB - Elsevier Masson SAS AN - OPUS4-55727 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Boaretto, E. A1 - Newman, H. A1 - Shevchuk, I. A1 - Breterniz, S. A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Date, Materiality and Historical Significance of P.Köln Inv. 5941 N2 - The paper presents the results of the radiocarbon dating and ink analysis of a leather fragment bearing an important liturgical text in Hebrew from the early centuries of the common era. The work initiated by the scholarly interest in the text stresses the importance of the date and materiality of the manuscripts and closes with an appeal to the curators of manuscript collections. KW - Mixed ink KW - Radiocarbon KW - Leather PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-528063 DO - https://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.8471 VL - 6/2 SP - 173 EP - 186 AN - OPUS4-52806 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rabin, Ira ED - Raggetti, L. T1 - Material Studies of Historic Inks: Transition from Carbon to Iron-Gall Inks N2 - This chapter offers observations and considerations concerning black writing inks encountered in writing supports transmitting documentary and literary texts of the late Antiquity and early Middle Ages. It discusses different types of inks, the Methods of their detection and their use in different times and geographical areas. KW - Material analysis KW - Writing inks KW - Ink fingerprint PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-528057 DO - https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004444805_006 SP - 70 EP - 78 PB - Brill CY - Leiden AN - OPUS4-52805 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - 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 - 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 - JOUR A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Calvillo, Nelson T1 - Coloured Ruling Lines in a Fourteenth-Century Ashkenazi Torah Scroll N2 - Rabbinic halakhah required that Torah scrolls be written with relief ruling, horizontal and vertical lines scored into the writing surface. Coloured ruling with plummet or ink would make a Torah scroll invalid for liturgical use. Ruling lines on some leather fragments of early Oriental Torah scrolls give the impression of being produced with plummet or ink but may be the result of dust in the furrows of relief ruling. Erfurt 9, a fourteenth-century Ashkenazi Torah scroll, has coloured ruling, which is partial secondary re-ruling, on 13 of the 34 surviving sheets, perhaps added when the original relief ruling was difficult to see. The coloured ruling in Erfurt 9 is brown, giving it the visual appearance of iron-gall ink. However, XRF tests showed that the only meaningful metallic component in the coloured ruling was lead (Pb). Lead plummet ruling tends to have a greyish appearance. Black specks under near infrared light are consistent with minium, a lead-based red ink that can turn brown when it degrades. Partial secondary re-ruling added with minium to the original relief ruling comes as a surprise as it would have rendered Erfurt 9 unfit for liturgical use. KW - Hebrew Manuscripts KW - Ruling Lines KW - Coloured Ink PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-628531 DO - https://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.17169 SN - 2410-0951 VL - 10 SP - 9 EP - 32 AN - OPUS4-62853 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Glaser, L. A1 - Shevchuk, I. A1 - Tolkiehn, M. A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Hahn, Oliver T1 - Improving Iron Gall Ink Palimpsest X-ray Fluorescence Element Mapping Analysis N2 - In the recent years multispectral imaging and X-ray Fluorescence element mapping have established themselves as a well working two step approach, when dealing with faded, erased or overwritten text in iron gall ink. During the last years a lot was done to improve the mere technical side of the techniques. Especially in the case of XRF mapping experiments the acquisition speed needed to be increased to allow mapping in the high resolution demanded by the challenges at hand. High resolution in moderate times can now be achieved, but with the price of proportionally increased amount of data that needs to be processed ideally in parallel to the measurement. The classical approach in XRF spectroscopy of elemental fitting of the spectral data does not even come close to fulfill any on the fly processing time constraints and will consume too much processing time in the foreseeable future. In this paper we will discuss the applicability of modern statistical data processing methods to XRF mapping of iron gall ink palimpsests. We will present a comparison of a new approach based on principle and independent component analysis (PCA and ICA) and the standard element mapping method. We will show that a reduction in processing time of almost two orders of magnitude can easily be achieved. T2 - Kongress Visual Heritage, CHNT 23 CY - Vienna, Austria DA - 15.11.2018 KW - Palimpsest KW - Iron-gall ink PY - 2020 SP - 1.1 EP - 1.9 AN - OPUS4-50243 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Hahn, Oliver A1 - Kaska, K. ED - Uhlirz, T1 - Why Do We Need to Study Inks? N2 - While studying the socio-geographic history of inks, division 4.5 (Analysis of cultural artefacts and assets) of the BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) in Berlin together with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures in Hamburg 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. Using this protocol, scientists can assist scholars in addressing a rather broad range of historical questions that cannot be answered unequivocally through scholarly research alone. Among these are investigations on collaboration between scribes and scriptoria, on the usage and annotation of manuscripts and on their path through time and space in general. This research can thus help to reconstruct the circumstances of the production of written heritage as well as their history and transmission. To facilitate the dialogue between the scholars and the scientists a simple optical tool was developed to allow the scholars to perform preliminary ink analysis required for formulation of the question that in turn can be answered by scientific in-depth investigations. In this paper, ink types and their identification method is accompanied by examples of the recent work conducted on parchment manuscripts in the Austrian National Library. T2 - Congress Visual Heritage, CHNT 23 CY - Vienna, Austria DA - 15.12.2018 KW - Ink KW - Parchment PY - 2020 SP - 1.1 EP - 1.9 CY - Wien AN - OPUS4-50242 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ghigo, Tea A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Gaining Perspective into the Materiality of Manuscripts: The Contribution of Archaeometry to the Study of the Inks of the White Monastery Codices N2 - An interdisciplinary approach to the study of manuscript traditions is here applied to the analysis of the leaves from the White Monastery, one of the greatest centres of literary production in Late Antique Egypt. In the framework of the ‘PAThs’ project, archaeometric analyses complement the information pieced together by a range of disciplines in the field of humanities. The use of different complementary analytical techniques provides information on the type of ink used and its elemental composition, unveiling interesting details regarding the materials and methodology of manufacturing of writing media. Moreover, this contribution takes a step forward and discusses the possible existence of a regional arrangement in the elemental composition revealed in the inks studied. KW - Manuscript making KW - Archaeometry KW - Ink analysis KW - Interdisciplinary approach KW - Coptic studies PY - 2020 SP - 273 EP - 282 AN - OPUS4-51003 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bonnerot, Olivier A1 - Del Mastro, G. A1 - Hammerstaedt, J. A1 - Mocella, V. A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - XRF ink Analysis of some Herculaneum papyri N2 - Recent research has suggested that some of the inks used in Herculaneum papyri do not consist of pure carbon. Starting from this finding, in June 2018 a preliminary campaign of analysis by means of X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) of external portions removed mechanically from their original rolls in the eighteenth century (the so-called scorze) took place at the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples. Also in this case, the aim of the survey was to investigate the ink composition in order to detect possible traces of metal. This article sums up the results of this survey. KW - Herculaneum papyri KW - Ink KW - XRF PY - 2020 SP - 50 EP - 52 AN - OPUS4-51193 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -