Material study of inks
- Our 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 containOur 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. Even crude observations suggest that the inks of antiquity differed greatly in their composition. We believe, that reconstructing the ink recipes with the help of advanced non-destructive analytical techniques could serve as a powerful accessory in the studies of ancient papyri. The proposed paper will present a short survey of the methods of material analysis and the challenges offered by ancient inks. (Two) examples of ink studies from the collections of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and Egyptian Museum in Berlin will conclude the paper.…
Autor*innen: | Ira Rabin |
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Dokumenttyp: | Vortrag |
Veröffentlichungsform: | Präsentation |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2016 |
DDC-Klassifikation: | Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Chemie / Analytische Chemie |
Freie Schlagwörter: | Archaeometry; Cultural heritage; Non-destructive testing; Writing inks |
Veranstaltung: | 28th international congress of papyrology |
Veranstaltungsort: | Barcelona, Spain |
Beginndatum der Veranstaltung: | 01.08.2016 |
Enddatum der Veranstaltung: | 06.08.2016 |
Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments: | Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access") |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 20.02.2017 |
Referierte Publikation: | Nein |
Eingeladener Vortrag: | Nein |