Cairo Genizah documents of the 11th century: analysis of writing materials
- 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 theThe 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.…
Autor*innen: | Zina Cohen, J. Schlanger, Oliver Hahn, Ira Rabin |
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Dokumenttyp: | Vortrag |
Veröffentlichungsform: | Präsentation |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2018 |
Organisationseinheit der BAM: | 4 Material und Umwelt |
4 Material und Umwelt / 4.5 Kunst- und Kulturgutanalyse | |
DDC-Klassifikation: | Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Chemie / Analytische Chemie |
Freie Schlagwörter: | Cairo Genizah; Ink; Manuscripts; Reflectography; XRF |
Themenfelder/Aktivitätsfelder der BAM: | Chemie und Prozesstechnik |
Veranstaltung: | Konferenz Art&Archaeology2018 – 3rd International Conference |
Veranstaltungsort: | Jerusalem, Israel |
Beginndatum der Veranstaltung: | 09.12.2018 |
Enddatum der Veranstaltung: | 12.12.2018 |
Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments: | Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access") |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 21.12.2018 |
Referierte Publikation: | Nein |
Eingeladener Vortrag: | Nein |