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Insights into the composition of ancient Egyptian red and black inks on papyri achieved by synchrotron-based microanalyses

2020; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 117; Issue: 45 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.2004534117

1091-6490

Thomas L. Christiansen, Marine Cotte, Wout De Nolf, Elouan Mouro, Juan Reyes-Herrera, Steven De Meyer, Frederik Vanmeert, Nati Salvadó, Víctor González, P. E. Lindelöf, Kell Mortensen, Kim Ryholt, Koen Janssens, Sine Larsen,

Building materials and conservation

Significance Ink, invented in ancient Egypt circa 5,000 y ago, is the established and time-honored medium wherewith humankind commits words to writing. A comprehensive synchrotron-based microanalysis of a considerable corpus of ancient Egyptian papyri from the Roman period, inscribed with red and black inks, reveal a hitherto undetected complex composition of inks. Highlighted by the presence of iron, the red color can be attributed to the use of ocher. Unexpectedly, lead is regularly present in both the red and black inks and is associated to phosphate, sulfate, chloride, and carboxylate ions. The analysis shows that lead was probably used as a drier rather than as a pigment, similar to its usage in 15th century Europe during the development of oil paintings.