bridget leach _ tanning tests for two documents written on animal skin , vol . 81 (1995) , pp ....

8/10/2019 Bridget Leach _ Tanning Tests for Two Documents Written on Animal Skin , Vol . 81 (1995) , Pp . 241-243

1/4

Egypt Exploration Society

Tanning Tests for Two Documents Written on Animal SkinAuthor(s): Bridget LeachSource: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 81 (1995), pp. 241-243Published by: Egypt Exploration SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3821826

Accessed: 11/05/2010 15:55

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2/4

BRIEF

COMMUNICATIONS

RIEF

COMMUNICATIONS

the

published

catalogue,

Drovettidonatedboth

papyri

o this

library

n

1827.33As

this

information

cannot be sustained

by

other

evidence,

I

suspect

it

is

based on a mistake.

I conclude that of the three so-called Denon

papyri,

only

the

copy

of the

Book

of

Breathings

Made

by

Isis on Denon's

pl.

136 was in the Denon collection on a

permanent

basis. The two

funerarypapyri

of Osorkon

(pls.

137-8)

were

presumablyonly

in his

possession

for

a

short

period

in order for them to be included in the Voyage.Their designationas Denon papyriis based

exclusively

on their inclusion

in

the

Voyage.

Between 1802 and

1809,

both

papyri

were

bought

by

Divov

father

or son

in Paris and turned

up

in 1827 in

St.

Petersburg

n

the collection of the

National

Library

of Russia.At the auction

of Denon's

antiquities

n

1827,

the

Book

of Breathings

Made

by

Isis was

bought by

Baron

van

Westreenen,

the founder of

the

present

Meermanno-

Westreenianum

Museum

in

The

Hague.

The

fourth Denon

papyrus,

he

Ptolemaic

Book of the

Dead described

above,

was sold at the same

auction,

but its

present

location s unknown.

MARCCOENEN*

Tanning

tests

for two documents

written

on animal skin

Description

f

testing

two animal

kin

manuscripts

BM

EA

10122,

10281/2)

or

vegetable

annins

o determine

the

methodof skin

preparation.

EVIDENCEor the

production

of leather and

parchment

in

ancient

Egypt

comes

from the

examination

of the

surviving

material,

or from

representations

on tomb walls.

From the

archaeo-

logical

evidence

it

appears

that

craft

practices

were well established

in

Egypt by

the New

Kingdom.'

As

far as

ancient

Mesopotamia

is

concerned,

cuneiform

tablets

survive,

dated

1600-1000

BC,

with

recipes

and

methods used

in

skin

preparation.2

Some

references

from

classicaltimes are reported,3and, from aroundthe seventhcenturyADonwards, he Arabswere

responsible

for

disseminating

much

information

about the

craft

practices

of the

Middle

East.

There

is, however,

very

little certain

evidence

for methods

of skin

preparation

n ancient

Egypt,

and

only

a

limited

amount

of

information

an be deduced

by examining

skins with the

naked

eye.

This

paper

concerns

an

investigation,

drawing

on two

particular xamples,

nto one

aspect

of skin

preparation

n

Egypt,

namely

when the material

was

to be used

for

writing.

In

particular,

were

the skins

prepared

as

a

parchment,

or tanned

as

in

leather

production?

There are

many

differences

between

the

manufacturingprocesses

of leather and

parchment,

but

one essential

difference

is that

parchment

s dried under

tension,

thereby restructuring

he

dermal

network

of the

skin

and

stretching

the

fibres,

setting

them

permanently

n this

position

when

dry.

Another

difference

is that leather

is

tanned;

this

process

of

treating

skins

with

various

vegetable

products

causes

an

irreversiblechemical

change

in the dermal

network,

changing

the

skin into leather.However, n antiquity he differenceswere not necessarilyso clearlydefined,

and

it

seems

that

skins could

be

prepared

as a

parchment

and then some sort of

tannage

applied

afterwards.4

Whether this would

have been

the case

in

the

preparation

of

writing

materials

is

uncertain.

Sometimes

visual

means alone

are

enough

to

distinguish

between

parchment

and

33Catalogue

des

manuscrits

et

xylographes

orientaux

de

la

Bibliotheque

Imperiale Publique

de St.

Petersbourg

(St. Petersburg,

1852=

Leipzig,

1978),

x. This version

is also

given

in

Evgenova,

Trudy

Gosudarstvennoi

ublichnoi

Biblioteki,

7-8,

and

in

Niwiniski,

Theban

FuneraryPapyri,

47-8.

I

thank Prof.

E.

Waegemans

for

translating

the

relevant

passage

from the

article of

Evgenova.

*

Aspirant

van het

Belgisch

Nationaal Fonds

voor

Wetenschappelijk

Ondersoek.

1

A.

Lucas,

Ancient

Egyptian

Materials

and

Industries4,

revised

by

J.

R.

Harris

(London,

1989),

33-7;

R.

J.

Forbes,

Studies

in Ancient

Technology2,

V

(Leiden,

1966),

22-34.

2

R.

Reed,

Ancient

Skins,

Parchmentsand Leathers

(London,

1972),

87-9.

3

Forbes, tudies,

48-57.

4

Reed,

Ancient

Skins,

122-3.

the

published

catalogue,

Drovettidonatedboth

papyri

o this

library

n

1827.33As

this

information

cannot be sustained

by

other

evidence,

I

suspect

it

is

based on a mistake.

I conclude that of the three so-called Denon

papyri,

only

the

copy

of the

Book

of

Breathings

Made

by

Isis on Denon's

pl.

136 was in the Denon collection on a

permanent

basis. The two

funerarypapyri

of Osorkon

(pls.

137-8)

were

presumablyonly

in his

possession

for

a

short

period

in order for them to be included in the Voyage.Their designationas Denon papyriis based

exclusively

on their inclusion

in

the

Voyage.

Between 1802 and

1809,

both

papyri

were

bought

by

Divov

father

or son

in Paris and turned

up

in 1827 in

St.

Petersburg

n

the collection of the

National

Library

of Russia.At the auction

of Denon's

antiquities

n

1827,

the

Book

of Breathings

Made

by

Isis was

bought by

Baron

van

Westreenen,

the founder of

the

present

Meermanno-

Westreenianum

Museum

in

The

Hague.

The

fourth Denon

papyrus,

he

Ptolemaic

Book of the

Dead described

above,

was sold at the same

auction,

but its

present

location s unknown.

MARCCOENEN*

Tanning

tests

for two documents

written

on animal skin

Description

f

testing

two animal

kin

manuscripts

BM

EA

10122,

10281/2)

or

vegetable

annins

o determine

the

methodof skin

preparation.

EVIDENCEor the

production

of leather and

parchment

in

ancient

Egypt

comes

from the

examination

of the

surviving

material,

or from

representations

on tomb walls.

From the

archaeo-

logical

evidence

it

appears

that

craft

practices

were well established

in

Egypt by

the New

Kingdom.'

As

far as

ancient

Mesopotamia

is

concerned,

cuneiform

tablets

survive,

dated

1600-1000

BC,

with

recipes

and

methods used

in

skin

preparation.2

Some

references

from

classicaltimes are reported,3and, from aroundthe seventhcenturyADonwards, he Arabswere

responsible

for

disseminating

much

information

about the

craft

practices

of the

Middle

East.

There

is, however,

very

little certain

evidence

for methods

of skin

preparation

n ancient

Egypt,

and

only

a

limited

amount

of

information

an be deduced

by examining

skins with the

naked

eye.

This

paper

concerns

an

investigation,

drawing

on two

particular xamples,

nto one

aspect

of skin

preparation

n

Egypt,

namely

when the material

was

to be used

for

writing.

In

particular,

were

the skins

prepared

as

a

parchment,

or tanned

as

in

leather

production?

There are

many

differences

between

the

manufacturingprocesses

of leather and

parchment,

but

one essential

difference

is that

parchment

s dried under

tension,

thereby restructuring

he

dermal

network

of the

skin

and

stretching

the

fibres,

setting

them

permanently

n this

position

when

dry.

Another

difference

is that leather

is

tanned;

this

process

of

treating

skins

with

various

vegetable

products

causes

an

irreversiblechemical

change

in the dermal

network,

changing

the

skin into leather.However, n antiquity he differenceswere not necessarilyso clearlydefined,

and

it

seems

that

skins could

be

prepared

as a

parchment

and then some sort of

tannage

applied

afterwards.4

Whether this would

have been

the case

in

the

preparation

of

writing

materials

is

uncertain.

Sometimes

visual

means alone

are

enough

to

distinguish

between

parchment

and

33Catalogue

des

manuscrits

et

xylographes

orientaux

de

la

Bibliotheque

Imperiale Publique

de St.

Petersbourg

(St. Petersburg,

1852=

Leipzig,

1978),

x. This version

is also

given

in

Evgenova,

Trudy

Gosudarstvennoi

ublichnoi

Biblioteki,

7-8,

and

in

Niwiniski,

Theban

FuneraryPapyri,

47-8.

I

thank Prof.

E.

Waegemans

for

translating

the

relevant

passage

from the

article of

Evgenova.

*

Aspirant

van het

Belgisch

Nationaal Fonds

voor

Wetenschappelijk

Ondersoek.

1

A.

Lucas,

Ancient

Egyptian

Materials

and

Industries4,

revised

by

J.

R.

Harris

(London,

1989),

33-7;

R.

J.

Forbes,

Studies

in Ancient

Technology2,

V

(Leiden,

1966),

22-34.

2

R.

Reed,

Ancient

Skins,

Parchmentsand Leathers

(London,

1972),

87-9.

3

Forbes, tudies,

48-57.

4

Reed,

Ancient

Skins,

122-3.

1995995

24141


3/4

BRIEF

COMMUNICATIONS

leather,

but an additional

difficulty

with ancient material

s that

it can have deteriorated

badly

or

have had

repairs

or

dressings applied

to it in

recent

times.

If

this is the

case,

chemical tests

for

the

presence

of

tannins can be used to some

effect,

and these are described here. The

presence

of tannin alone cannot

lead to a

conclusion that the material is a

leather,

but it can

give

an

indicationof the more

likely

identification.

Likewise,

the

absence

of

tannins can

only

point

to the

possibility hat the skin waspreparedas parchment,but this cannot be stateddefinitely.

The collections

in

the

Department

of

EgyptianAntiquities

in

the

British Museum contain

several leather and

parchmentmanuscripts.They

include an illustratedNew

Kingdom

Book of

the

Dead

(EA

10473),

a

hieratic Book of the Dead

(EA

10281),

a

mathematical

ext

(EA

10250),

a

literary

ext

(the

Teaching

of

a

Man

for

his

Son,

EA

10258),

and four

Coptic magical

scrolls

(EA

10122,

10376, 10391,

10414).

These

manuscripts

are

very

fragile,

and

by

their nature do

not

always

ie flat as is

the

case with

papyri;

consequently, they

can be

difficult to mount

and store

safely.

Two of

them were

recently

sent to the

Department

of Conservation or

treatment,

namely

EA 10122

and EA

10281/2.

EA 10122

is one of four

Coptic magical

scrolls in

the collection

coming

from the same

ancient

archive,

dated

tentatively

o the sixth or

seventh

century

AD.5

It

has all the

appearance

of

a

strip

of

brown eather.There are

some small

missing

areas,

and

parts

are

very

brittle;

t is also

stained

and fractured.The hair and the flesh sides have been writtenon in blackink, and it measures

approximately

5

cm

in

length,

and

8

cm at

its widest

part.

EA

10281 is

a hieratic Book of

the

Dead,

and

comprises

a

series of

fragments

which

are

mounted

in

thirteen

glass

frames.

They

represent

a

master

copy

of

a Book of the

Dead,

which

apparently

had,

in

antiquity,

been

adapted

or

private

use

by

one

Nebimes;

it

can be

dated

by

the

hieratic hand to the

early

Eighteenth Dynasty.6

All the

frames

contain one

or more

fragments.

The second frame

contains

three,

the smallest

being

2.8

x

4 cm

and the

largest

12.5

x

4.4 cm.

Both the

larger

fragments

have,

at some time in

the more

recent

past,

been

very

heavily

'varnished',

giving

them an

almost black

lacquer-like

sheen

on

the

surface.

This had

totally

obscured the black

ink,

and

only

the

red

ink

was

visible.

Infra-red

photography

has,

however,

enabled

the text

to

be read.

The

fragments

had been

laid down

onto card and are

now

very

brittle,

with

many

hairline cracks. The

smallest

fragment

of EA

10281/2,

however,

had

escaped

the

'varnishing' nd is still a creamybrowncolour.

Once

the mountswere

opened

it

was

possible

to

carry

out

tests

on

the

skins

before conservation

work

started.

Attempts

to

identify

the

animal

type by

comparing

grain patterns

under the

microscope

were

unsuccessful,

as the

skins

in

both

manuscripts

were too

degraded.

The

test

for

tannins

that was used is

very

simple.7

Tannins

give

strong

colourswhen

treated

with

certain

ron

salts;

indeed this

is

the

way

iron-gall

nk

is

produced.8

Therefore,

if

an iron

salt

is reactedwith

a

few

fibres

of

a

vegetable

tanned

leather,

t

will darken

he fibres to

an intense

blackwhich

may

have a

blue,

grey,

or

greenish

tint. The

change

is

very

marked

and

can be

seen

clearly

either

by

the naked

eye,

or

under

the

microscope

when

single

fibres can

be tested. When

the leather

sample

is

already

a

very

dark

brown,

almost

black, colour,

the colour

change

can

be difficult

to see. This

is somewhateased

by

studying

single

fibres,

as

they

appear

ess

coloured han the bulk

material.

The iron

salt used

in this

case was ferrous

sulphate

(2

FeSO4

w/v

in

distilled

water).9

Small

sampleswere taken fromboth documents underthe microscope.From the Coptic manuscript

fibres were

teased

away

with tweezers from the inner

layer

of the

material,

hereby

avoiding

he

surface

layers

which

may

have

received

later tannin

coatings

or

dressings,

and also

avoiding

he

5

W. E.

Crum,

'Magical

Texts

in

Coptic',

JEA

20

(1934),

51-3,

195-200,

pls. ix.2,

xxv.

6

A. W.

Shorter,

A

Leather

Manuscript

of the

Book of

the Dead

in

the

British

Muesum',

JEA

20

(1934),

33-40,

pls.

iv-vii;

S.

Quirke,

Owners

of FuneraryPapyri

in

the

BritishMuseum

(British

Museum

Occasional

Paper

92; London,

1993),

16-17,

46 no. 123.

7

Although

simple

by

scientific

standards,

his

test

should of course

be carriedout

only

in

a

laboratory

by personnel

trained o handle

archaeological

materialand

familiarwith

scientific

testing

methods.

8

J.

Watrous,

The

Craftof

Old

Master

Drawings (Madison,1957),

69-72.

9

R.

Larson,

'Micro-chemical

Determinationof

Vegetable

Tannin',

LeatherConservation

News

7

(1990),

no. 1

(pages unnumbered);

Reed,AncientSkins,

273-9;

V.

Daniels,

Evaluation

of

a Test

for

Tannin in

Leather

(British

Museum

Conservation

Research

Report

No. CA

1993/1;London,

February

1993).

YEA

81

42


4/4

BRIEF

COMMUNICATIONS

inked

areas. With the hieratic

document,

it

was

the small

unvarnishedarea which was

sampled,

since here

the ink

was

visible,

and

could therefore be avoided. In this

case,

a few fibres were

scrapedaway

with

a

scalpel,

as the materialwas

very

brittle. Each

sample

was then

placed

on a

glass

slide and divided

into two small bunches. One of the

bunches

on

each slide served as a

control,

and

the

other

had a

drop

of

the

ferrous

sulphate

solution

pipetted

onto

it. Both sets of

fibres were then examinedunderthe microscope.Colourchangecan takeup to severalhours to

develop

but

usually

occurs after about fifteen minutes. The

Coptic manuscript

showed a

very

definite

darkening

of

fibres,

but the

hieratic

ragment

did not react. This

indicated hat the

Coptic

document

(EA 10122)

was written on a

vegetable

tanned material and is

therefore

possibly

a

leather,

and the hieratic

fragments

(EA 10281)

a non-tanned

material,

most

likely

a

parchment

or vellum.10

Furthermore,

pH

measurements

gave

the

following

results:-

Coptic manuscript

pH

4

Book of the

Dead

fragments pH

5-6

The more acidic nature of the

Coptic

scroll is consistent with a

vegetable

tanned leather which

contains acidic

residues from the

tanning process.

BRIDGET

EACH

10The terms

parchment

and vellum have become almost

interchangeable.

Vellum used to mean

parch-

ment made from calf skin, which produces a particularly thin and strong material. Today, the word vellum

does not

necessarily

mean a skin

prepared

from calf

skin,

but can

mean

any

fine

and

strong parchment

regardless

of

the animal

species

used

(Reed,

Ancient

Skins,

126).

1995

243