Observations on writing materials of the DSS

  • The experimental knowledge about the inks of antiquity and late antiquity rarely goes beyond their visual description. In rare cases, inks typology has been determined by means of microscopy and reflectography, i.e. using their physical and optical properties, respectively. Soot, plant, and iron gall inks form different typological classes of historical black writing materials. Soot ink is a fine dispersion of carbon pigments in a water-soluble binding agent; plant-based ink consists of tannin solution; iron gall-ink presents a boundary case between soot and plant ink— a water soluble preliminary stage (similar to inks from the second group) oxidizes and evolves into a black, insoluble material (similar to the carbon pigments of the first group) when the writing is exposed to air. Each ink class has distinct properties that would readily permit their easy differentiation, if only these historical inks always belonged to just one of the classes above. In reality, inks may containThe experimental knowledge about the inks of antiquity and late antiquity rarely goes beyond their visual description. In rare cases, inks typology has been determined by means of microscopy and reflectography, i.e. using their physical and optical properties, respectively. Soot, plant, and iron gall inks form different typological classes of historical black writing materials. Soot ink is a fine dispersion of carbon pigments in a water-soluble binding agent; plant-based ink consists of tannin solution; iron gall-ink presents a boundary case between soot and plant ink— a water soluble preliminary stage (similar to inks from the second group) oxidizes and evolves into a black, insoluble material (similar to the carbon pigments of the first group) when the writing is exposed to air. Each ink class has distinct properties that would readily permit their easy differentiation, if only these historical inks always belonged to just one of the classes above. In reality, inks may contain additives that obscure a clear picture. All the black inks of the DSS have been hitherto identified as soot inks. Yet some manuscripts, with 1QapGen ar among them, display ink corrosion that is incompatible with the pure soot ink. This type of corrosion commonly observed in medieval manuscripts written with iron gall inks, results from the catalytic action of metallic component in the ink. Early analysis of this ink conducted by Nir El and Broshi in 1996 found copper in the corrosive inks and attributed its presence to the use of bronze inkwells. Re-investigation of the 1QapGen ar ink suggests, however, that the ink composition, soot + copper, agrees well with the ink recipe recorded in the 1st century CE by Dioscorides. Similar inks have been already attested on contemporary Egyptian papyri. The first part of the paper is dedicated to the new results on the inks and corrosion pattern of the 1QapGen ar. In the second part of the presentation I will focus on the luxury scrolls, a distinct codicological type introduced by E. Tov. Our studies show that the preparation of the writing materials cannot supplement the list of codicological criteria offered by Tov. Therefore, one can divorce the writing material production from its inscription in contrast with the medieval scriptoria practices that included parchment production and copying of the manuscripts.zeige mehrzeige weniger

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Metadaten
Autor*innen:Ira Rabin
Dokumenttyp:Vortrag
Veröffentlichungsform:Präsentation
Sprache:Englisch
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung:2016
DDC-Klassifikation:Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Chemie / Analytische Chemie
Freie Schlagwörter:Archaeometry; Cultural heritage; Dead Sea Scrolls; Manuscripts
Veranstaltung:Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting 2016
Veranstaltungsort:San Antonio, TX, USA
Beginndatum der Veranstaltung:19.11.2016
Enddatum der Veranstaltung:22.11.2016
Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments:Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access")
Datum der Freischaltung:20.02.2017
Referierte Publikation:Nein
Eingeladener Vortrag:Nein
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