An analysis of 12 ancient
papyrus fragments has revealed some surprising details about how the Egyptians
mixed their red and black ink – findings which could give us a lot more insight
into how the earliest writers managed to get their words down on the page.
We know that ancient Egyptians
were using inks to write at least as far back as 3200 BCE.
However, the samples
studied in this case were dated to 100-200 CE and originally collected from the
famous Tebtunis temple library – the only large-scale institutional library
known to have survived from the period.
Using a variety of synchrotron
radiation techniques, including the use of high-powered X-rays to analyse
microscopic samples, the researchers revealed the elemental, molecular, and
structural composition of the inks in unprecedented detail.
"By applying 21st
century, state-of-the-art technology to reveal the hidden secrets of ancient
ink technology, we are contributing to the unveiling of the origin of writing
practices," says physicist Marine Cotte from the European Synchrotron
Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France.
The red inks, typically used
to highlight headings, instructions, or keywords, were most likely coloured by
the natural pigment ochre, the researchers say – traces of iron, aluminium, and
hematite point to this being the case.More intriguing was the discovery of
lead-based compounds in both the black and the red inks, without any of the
traditional lead-based pigments used for colouring.
This suggests the lead was
added for technical purposes.
"Lead-based driers
prevent the binder from spreading too much, when ink or paint is applied
on the surface of paper or papyrus," the team
writes in their study.
"Indeed, in the present
case, lead forms an invisible halo surrounding the ochre particles."
As well as explaining how the
ancient Egyptians kept their papyrus smudge-free, it also suggests some pretty
specialised ink manufacturing techniques.
It's likely that the temple priests
who wrote using this ink weren't the ones who were originally mixing it.
"The fact that the lead
was not added as a pigment but as a drier infers that the ink had quite a
complex recipe and could not be made by just anyone," says Egyptologist Thomas Christiansen, from the University of
Copenhagen in Denmark.
"We hypothesise that
there were workshops specialised in preparing inks."
Interestingly enough, the
preparation of red ink inside a workshop has also been mentioned in a Greek document dated to the
third century CE, backing up the idea of specialised ink mixing in Egypt and
across the Mediterranean.
This technique of using lead as a drying agent was also adopted in 15th
century Europe as oil paintings began to appear – but it would seem that the
ancient Egyptians discovered the trick at least 1,400 years earlier.
The researchers are planning
more tests and different kinds of analysis, but what they've found so far is
already fascinating – another example of how modern-day scientific instruments
can unlock even more secrets from the past, even down to coloured ink.
"The advanced
synchrotron-based microanalyses have provided us with invaluable knowledge of
the preparation and composition of red and black inks in ancient Egypt and Rome
2,000 years ago," says Christiansen.
