A preliminary study on dating of ancient written records from ink marks

Abstract

It is of great significance and challenge to identify the authenticity and date ancient cultural relics such as ancient written records involving calligraphy and paintings by using scientific instrumental analysis In this paper the ink marks rsquo of five ancient written records from different ages i e two in the Republican period two in Qing dynasty and one in Ming dynasty were analyzed by using FT IR and Raman spectrometers The experimental results revealed that According to FT IR analysis it was found that with the increase of retention time there were regularities on the group variations of the additive gelatin in the ink marks and the changes of the amide groups could be used as a key character to estimate the relative date of the ink marks In addition the stretching vibration peak of C equiv C in carbon black and the characteristic peak of C H on the aromatic ring also exhibited significant changes over time which also could be a relative criterion in estimating the cultural relic s age Raman spectra showed that the ink marks were nbsp composed of carbon black with high structural defect and with the increase of retention time the grain size of carbon black decreased gradually which could be a criterion for estimating the relative date old or new of the ink marks However due to the rarity and non destructive of Chinese ancient calligraphy and paintings the earlier samples were difficult to collect and analyze It is expected that this preliminary study provides guidance for identification and conservation of cultural relics