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Organisationseinheit der BAM
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.
The Erfurt Hebrew Giant Bible and the Experimental XRF Analysis of Ink and Plummet Composition
(2007)
The Dead Sea Scrolls belong to the most important cultural assets of mankind. Their long term preservation and study is a challenge that demands an interdisciplinary approach. As early as the 1950s natural scientists assisted the scholars in studying the scrolls. It was at this time that the first extensive study of the scroll material took place. It was found that most fragments were written not on leather but on parchment. In addition, a method for determining the age of the parchment was developed which is still of value today. In the 1990s the AMS-C14 method confirmed the palaeographic determination of the age of the manuscripts. The use of carbon ink throughout the scrolls is also consistent with the known scribal practices of that time. There are, however, manuscripts, and among them the famous Genesis Apocryphon Scroll, which exhibit ink corrosion, normally associated with iron-gall inks.
Today, 60 years after their discovery, a community of scientists from the Jewish National and University Library (JNUL), the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin), the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and Fritz-Haber-Institute of the MPG (FHI) set out to scientifically investigate the finds of Qumran using the most modern methods. The results of the study will be used to determine the provenance of the texts as well as to contribute to their long-term preservation. A considerable part of the non-destructive investigation is taking place in the Berlin State Library and at the Berliner Elektronenspeicherring-Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung , BESSY II.
Preliminary investigations, performed at the BAM on some fragments, were used to evaluate the extent to which X-ray analytical methods can provide information regarding the geographical origin of the fragments and match the individual pieces. The interpretation of the measurement results is made more difficult by age and storage of the objects. It is believed that ageing processes as well as conservation methods have altered the samples in addition to the changes caused by environmental influences.
In collaboration with the TU Berlin, the samples from the parchments found in the caves near Qumran were tested by means of three-dimensional synchrotron based X-ray fluorescence analysis (3D-SyXRF). The aim of this non-destructive investigation was the identification of the inorganic material used in the manufacture of the parchments.
The XRF experiments are supported by the non-destructive analysis by means of synchrotron based infrared spectroscopy (SyFTIR) in collaboration with BESSY II as well as optical and electron microscopy in collaboration with Fritz-Haber-Institute (FHI).