Abstract
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. Key words: Manuscripts, inks, colorants, scientific investigation, non-destructive testing.
Highlights
Archaeological and art historical research often concerns the questions of origin, dating or attribution of cultural objects
The ink of the top row preserves more of its black color when the illumination is changed from VIS to near infrared (NIR) X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis demonstrated the presence of the iron-gall ink in both cases
The reference database will be expanded to include more materials and analyses to produce a solid base for comparison with original manuscripts
Summary
Archaeological and art historical research often concerns the questions of origin, dating or attribution of cultural objects. The heyday of Arabic paper production was between the 8th and the 13th century. The centre of paper production shifted to Europe, especially Italy, Arabic paper was still produced in the Middle East until the end of 15th century and until the 19th century in Central Asia (Loveday, 2001). Many changes, concerning both process and materials, were introduced in Europe, leading to the industrial production of paper that started in the 18th century in Central Europe. The use of ground wood as a source of fibers (first attempts in 1800, patented by Keller in 1840) (Hunter 1974)
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