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Our standard protocol for the characterisation of writing materials within advanced manuscript studies has been successfully used to investigate manuscripts written with a pure ink on a homogeneous writing surface. However, this protocol is inadequate for analysing documents penned in mixed inks. We present here the advantages and limitations of the improved version of the protocol, which now includes imaging further into the infrared region (1100−1700 nm).
The investigation of physical properties and chemical composition generates data important for answering cultural-historical questions that cannot be solved by historical and philological methods alone. Due to technological developments, technical diagnostics in art and culture are in ever-greater demand in such fields of transdisciplinary research. Natural sciences play auxiliary role in the studies of manuscripts. The success of their contribution depends strongly on the formulation of the question, the choice of the methods to obtain the requested answer, and appropriate reference databases. First, report was given on the measurements performed on local raw materials, such as, plants, minerals and animals, which constitute the reference session. Then, the first results of the scientific analysis of several fragments from the Malian manuscript collections were present.
We present here our methodological approach applied to the study of Egyptian inks in Late Antiquity. It is based on an interdisciplinary strategy, bringing together a variety of disciplines from humanities and natural sciences, and it aims at systematically collecting a statistically relevant amount of data regarding the composition of the inks. The application of a wellestablished, non-invasive protocol that includes near-infrared imaging and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy for in situ measurements enables the identification and characterisation of inks dating from the end of Late Antiquity onwards. However, sometimes this method limits our understanding when characterising more ancient inks. Trying to overcome these limitations, the potential of a new device for the characterisation of organic compounds is here explored by conducting preliminary tests on mock samples.
In this work, we present the results from 77 codicological units that include some of the earliest manuscripts of our corpus that presently lists 159 units.
Natural sciences play auxiliary role in the studies of manuscripts. The success of their contribution depends strongly on the formulation of the question and the choice of the methods to obtain the requested answer. Therefore, one should try to go beyond the understanding of the basic principles of the scientific analysis.
We will start with a glance at the basic principles of the techniques used in the material science for determination of the elemental composition (X-ray emission) and molecular composition (FTIR & Raman). We will move then to the bench and mobile equipment commonly used in the field of cultural heritage. At the end we will choose a question to be answered and design an ideal experiment that will be modified according to the limitations dictated by on-site conditions.
The international Qumran project coordinated at the BAM, Berlin, resulted in an integrated methodology for determining the original and acquired properties of the skin-based writing surfaces of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This methodology offers a powerful tool for addressing such questions as the provenance, sorting and comparison of manuscripts. In addition, we have developed specific protocols for on-site studies, which were successfully applied to the fragments from the Schøyen collection in Norway. Our studies show that the Dead Sea Scrolls writing surfaces can be divided roughly into three groups: leather, parchments of a light tint, and those of various shades of brown. The latter ones are invariably tanned, whereas the middle group is characterized by the presence of various inorganic salts. Some of the pale parchments, among them the Temple Scroll (11Q19), are remarkably similar to medieval European parchment. Therefore we have formulated the working theory that in the Judaea of the Hellenistic period two different parchment-making traditions existed side by side: an ‘eastern’ one (represented by the tanned parchments of Qumran, closely resembling Aramaic documents from the fifth century BC, and a ‘western’ one (represented by the untanned/lightly tanned ones similar to early Christian Greek parchments).
This division has found support during our first pilot study of the Geniza fragments, in which Babylonian and Palestinian traditions seem to follow the “eastern” and “western” technologies, respectively.
The evolution and socio-geographic distribution of writing inks in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages build the second focus of the BAM group. We use X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) to determine the chemical composition of the inks and NIR-reflectography for their typology. Here the early appearance of the metal containing inks clearly belongs to the western tradition as opposed to the continuous use of soot inks in the East.
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 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.
L'archéométrie est une discipline riche qui peut nous apporter beaucoup d'informations sur l'étude des manuscrits et qui, conjuguée à la paléographie et la codicologie, peut s'apporter un outil précieux pour mieux appréhender les sociétés qui ont produits ces manuscrits.
Nous verrons ici quelques exemples de techniques scientifiques non destructives, principalement appliqués à la Génizah du Caire, appliquées à l'étude des manuscrits.