Ink and support characterization of typologically established papyrus groups from the Palau-Ribes collection

Abstract

AbstractMost of papyrus documents have reached us in a very fragmentary state due to their excavation conditions and, because of the early history of papyrology, without an archaeological contextualisation. Traditionally, papyrologists have only relied on the bibliological characterisation of the documents they work on to provide such a chronological, geographical and socio-cultural context within which to fully understand the texts they edit and study. This study, following previous research on ink characterisation of papyrus documents, uses infrared spectroscopy and SEM/EDX for the analysis of ink and the papyrus surface. To this purpose, 67 samples of coherent groups of papyri from the Palau-Ribes collection in Barcelona, organised according to chronological, geographical and bibliological criteria, have been analysed to identify trends in their composition that may contribute to their characterisation and further enlarge our knowledge of written culture in Antiquity. The samples have been categorised into seven groups: Papyri that are (1) dated to II CE; (2) dated to VI CE; (3) from Oxyrhynchus; (4) from the Monastery of Bawit; (5) written in chancery hands; (6) written in bookhands, and (7) brown ink. All samples have been analysed using infrared spectroscopy, and SEM/EDX has also been used for analysis of a small subset of sample in order to confirm the presence of iron, sulphur and other elements. The results confirm previous findings in iron-gall ink distribution for texts written in bookhands from the Byzantine period, and adds to the characterisation of other groups, such as the Bawit one, with high levels of lignin in the composition of the writing surface, or the degradation of the cellulose shown for the Oxyrhynchus group, suggesting peculiar traits in the manufacturing and conservation of written documents from ancient times.