INSTRUMENTAL ANALYSIS OF THE INKS FROM THE MAGICAL PAPYRUS P. BEROL. INV. 5026 (PGM II / GEMF 30)

In the last two decades, the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschug und -prüfung (BAM), together with the Centre
for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC, University of Hamburg), has analysed manuscript materials,
with a special emphasis on inks, in order to reconstruct their history and development. Black inks are typically
divided into three types: carbon inks, made of carbon pigments dispersed in water with a binding agent; plant
or tannin inks with soluble extracts from tree bark or gallnuts; and iron-gall inks, produced by a chemical
reaction of divalent iron (Fe++) with gallic or tannic acid in a water-soluble binding media. Roughly speaking,
carbon inks appeared fi rst and prevailed during the whole period of Antiquity; they were gradually replaced
by iron-gall inks, which dominated the palette of black writing inks in the Middle Ages in Europe and the
Islamicate world. In recent years, we have focussed our attention on the transition period that lasted for more
than a thousand years and involved various metals and mixed inks.1 In a recently published detailed study
of the oldest known metal-containing ink, Nehring and co-authors stressed the distinct appearance of a tannin-
containing ink on papyrus, which diffuses beyond the letters, smearing the edges and producing a brownish
“halo”. In this context, inks from P. Berol. inv. 5026 appear particularly interesting to investigate, because
black inks with sharply defi ned contours alternate with the brownish and blurry ones. This paper investigates
the composition of the inks from P. Berol. inv. 5026 and the possible reasons for the use of the different inks.