Abstract
The development of black inks has enabled writing to become an established method of communication in history. Although a large research effort has been devoted to the study of pigments and dyes used in ancient Egypt to decorate burial walls and furnishings, or to write on papyrus, to date little attention has been paid to the nature and technology of inks used on ritual and daily-use textiles, which may have fostered the transfer of metallic ink technology onto papyrus and parchment supports. We report about inks from 15th century BCE Egyptian textiles by combining non-invasive techniques, including ultraviolet (UV) reflected imaging, near-infrared reflectography (NIRR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and prompt-gamma-activation-analysis (PGAA). It is argued that the inks are related to the family of iron gall inks, whose introduction is commonly attributed to the third century BCE. This interpretation frames the technology of writing on fabrics, used by the ancient Egyptians, in a different time, thus providing new information on the genesis of mordant inks in the ancient Mediterranean cultures. We anticipate our study to be a starting point for further and more sophisticated investigations of textiles, which will clarify the origin of metallic ink in the ancient world.
Highlights
The development of black inks has enabled writing to become an established method of communication in history
This showed that the black ink contained manganese (Mn) and small amounts of iron (Fe), so likely it is based on a combination of amorphous carbon and a Mn(Fe) compound like the Norwich shroud[13]
The results demonstrate that the inks used for the inscriptions on the textiles of Kha are likely based on ochre, which consisted of three parts: the principle colour-producing component, the secondary or modifying colour component and the base carrier of the colour
Summary
Ink characterisation using light and neutron probes. A preliminary characterisation of the inks inscribed on four textiles (S.5065/2, S.8535, S.8536 and S.8578) is done using UV imaging and NIRR. XRF imaging analysis was performed on the same textile in order to reveal the 2D elemental distribution of heavy elements, using a movable set-up with a maximum lateral resolution of 35 μm[18] This showed that the black ink contained manganese (Mn) and small amounts of iron (Fe), so likely it is based on a combination of amorphous carbon and a Mn(Fe) compound like the Norwich shroud[13]. In this case, the main element of the category is Fe, and it is characterised by a marked difference between mean and median values of the relative abundance across the distribution of the MPs. The asymmetrical distribution may arise from the non-uniform ink transfer onto the fibres by the nib during writing. Negative PC2 values are attributed to increasing level of damage, which may arise from metal-catalysed oxidation by the excess of un-complexed iron(II), photo degradation of cellulose as the acid-catalysed hydrolysis, or brown degradation products of the ink itself
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