Papyrus production revisited: differences between ancient and modern production modes
Papyrus production revisited: differences between ancient and modern production modes
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DOI：
10.1007/s10570-022-04573-y
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发表时间：
2022-04-29
期刊：
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
Potthast, Antje
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bausch, Florian;Rosado, Mario J.;Potthast, Antje
纸莎草，由莎草纸莎草的白色髓制成，作为古代文化的主要书写工具已有数千年的历史，但直到现代才有持续的纸莎草纸生产。因此，必须重新发现纸莎草纸的生产。现代埃及纸莎草纸生产商声称，他们的纸张具有“与古代纸莎草纸相同的物理和化学性质”。为了研究这是否准确，将商业上可用的纸莎草纸与古代纸莎草纸和根据普林尼的历史描述生产的纸莎草纸进行了比较。进行材料表征，重点是潜在的有色木质素。二维核磁共振光谱，衍生化还原裂解，热解气相色谱/质谱法进行了补充与显微镜和表面pH值和钠含量的测试。天然木髓和商业纸张中的木质素数据与维也纳纸莎草博物馆的10个古代样品进行了比较。分析数据清楚地表明，参与强碱性处理，然后氯漂白的商业纸莎草，表示较高的pH值，改变木质素结构，和氯化木质素化合物。在古代纸莎草纸的生产过程中，碱处理的步骤被讨论过，但被驳回，因为碱处理会导致木质素含量的大幅下降，这在分析的古代标本中没有发现。我们假设，这种额外的处理是为了获得满足现代观众光学期望的淡黄色纸莎草纸。语言学和艺术史的证据表明，这样的步骤在古代是没有意义的，因为人们希望生产白色纸莎草纸。
Papyrus, produced from the white pith of Cyperus papyrus L., has been used for millennia as the major writing support by ancient cultures, but there was no continuous papyrus production until modern times. Therefore, papyrus production had to be rediscovered. Modern Egyptian papyrus producers claim that their sheets possess 'the same physical and chemical properties as ancient papyri'. To study if this is accurate, commercially available papyrus sheets were compared to ancient papyri and papyri produced according to Pliny's historic description. Material characterization was performed with a focus on the potentially color-bearing lignin. Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, derivatization followed by reductive cleavage, and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry were complemented with microscopy and tests for surface pH and sodium content. The lignin data in the native pith and commercial sheets were compared to 10 ancient samples from the Papyrus Museum Vienna. The analytical data clearly show the involvement of a strong alkaline treatment followed by chlorine bleaching for commercial papyri, as expressed by higher pH values, altered lignin structures, and chlorinated lignin compounds. The inclusion of an alkaline step in ancient papyrus manufacture is discussed but dismissed, since the alkali-treatment causes a huge decrease in lignin content, that was not found for the analysed ancient specimen. We assume that this additional treatment was introduced to obtain yellowish papyrus sheets meeting optical expectations of modern spectators. Linguistic and art historic evidence indicates that such a step would not have made sense in antiquity, since it was desired to produce white papyri.