Egyptian metallic inks on textiles from the 15th century BCE unravelled by non-invasive techniques and chemometric analysis

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 at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2019-05, Vol.9 (1), p.7310-7310, Article 7310
Main Authors: Festa, G., Christiansen, T., Turina, V., Borla, M., Kelleher, J., Arcidiacono, L., Cartechini, L., Ponterio, R. C., Scatigno, C., Senesi, R., Andreani, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
15th century
631/181/19
639/766/930/12
Egyptian civilization
Humanities and Social Sciences
Ink & ink industry
multidisciplinary
Pigments
Printing industry
Raman spectroscopy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
Textiles
X-ray fluorescence
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Summary: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 15 th 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.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-43655-z