Identification of metallic elements in the inks of unopened Herculanean papyrus rolls by means of X-ray fluorescence analysis.

通过 X 射线荧光分析鉴定未开封的赫库拉尼亚纸莎草卷墨水中的金属元素。

• 批准号: 523631590
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Jürgen Hammerstaedt
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Klassische Philologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/523631590?language=en
• 关键词: Identification; metallic; elements; inks; unopened

The Herculanean papyrus rolls represent the only extant ancient library ever found in its original context and offer the most important collection of Epicurean literature. The texts deciphered so far constitute a source of highest importance for nearly every branch of Greek literature from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Due to the various attempts to open and read the carbonized rolls, many of them were broken or cut off into pieces. About 500 book rolls are still completely or partially unopened. No recent attempts to open entirely or partially unrolled papyrus rolls too were made since it is hoped that future non-invasive methods will render visible the hidden writing inside the rolls. In 2015 small sequences of blurred letters detected inside a Herculanean book roll by X-ray phase contrast imaging in the ERSF at Grenoble were published. The challenge now consists in the need of sharper focussing of the writing and of virtual unwrapping of the crushed bookroll layers. Virtual unrolling was successfully practised by Brent Seales’ team working on the computer tomography of a charred Hebrew scroll inscribed with metal containing ink. But since the Herculanean papyri do not have this strong metallic consistence and the transport of so many fragile rolls to a synchrotrone is unrealistic, additional criteria to identify and distinguish traces of ink in Herculanean papyri which may allow for analysis to be made inside the National Library of Naples are urgently needed. Taking as starting points the discovery of lead in the inks of several Herculanean papyri and a preliminary investigation in the ink of nearly 40 Herculanean papyri by means of an portable X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer published in 2020 which reveals several metals in different quantities and proportions, the present three-years’ proposal suggests for the first time analyzing systematically the ink of ca. 500 unopened Herculanean papyrus rolls using a combined NIR & XRF Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) to be installed in the Officina dei Papiri of the National Library of Naples. While in those cases, in which the metallic elements appear in high concentration, the use of synchrotron radiation may in future be substituted by the of computer tomography within the National Library of Naples, the research on the ink of Herculanean papyrus rolls is itself exceptionally important. Only the Herculanean papyri offer the chance of detecting the presence of metals in the inks of such a large number of samples belonging to the same ancient library. They share the terminus ante quem of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and were written mostly in Italy, and in a minor quantity in Greece, providing the unique opportunity to compare the presence of metals in these inks from Italy and Greece with that in the other ancient papyri which were mostly found in Egypt and (in a much lower quantity) in the Near Orient.

大力神的纸莎草卷代表了唯一现存的古代图书馆，在其原始背景下被发现，并提供了伊壁鸠鲁教最重要的文献收藏。到目前为止，破译的文本对于从古代到希腊化时期的几乎每一个希腊文学分支来说都是最重要的来源。由于各种打开和阅读碳化卷筒的尝试，许多卷筒被折断或切成碎片。约有500卷书仍未完全或部分打开。最近也没有尝试完全或部分打开展开的纸莎草卷，因为人们希望未来的非侵入性方法将使卷纸卷内隐藏的文字变得可见。2015年，在格勒诺布尔的ERSF中，通过X射线相衬成像在大力神书卷中检测到的小模糊字母序列被发表。现在的挑战在于需要更清晰地聚焦书写和虚拟地展开压碎的书卷层。布伦特·西尔斯的团队在对一幅烧焦的希伯来卷轴进行计算机断层扫描时，成功地进行了虚拟展开练习，卷轴上刻着含有墨水的金属。但是，由于大力神纸莎草纸没有这种强烈的金属一致性，而且将这么多易碎的纸卷运输到同步加速器是不现实的，迫切需要更多的标准来识别和区分大力神纸莎草纸中的墨迹，这可能允许在那不勒斯国家图书馆内进行分析。以在几种大力神纸莎草纸的墨水中发现铅，以及利用2020年出版的便携式X射线荧光光谱仪在近40大力神纸莎草纸的墨水中初步调查(揭示了几种不同数量和比例的几种金属)为起点，本三年提案建议首次使用近红外和X射线荧光成像光谱仪(IRIS)系统地分析约500卷未打开的大力神纸莎草纸的墨水，该仪器将安装在那不勒斯国家图书馆的Officina dei Papiri。虽然在金属元素浓度较高的情况下，同步辐射的使用未来可能会被那不勒斯国家图书馆的计算机断层扫描技术所取代，但对大力神纸莎草卷的墨水的研究本身就格外重要。只有巨大的纸莎草纸才有机会检测属于同一古代图书馆的如此大量的样本的墨水中是否存在金属。它们共有公元79年维苏威火山喷发的终结点，主要写在意大利，少量写在希腊，提供了独特的机会来比较这些来自意大利和希腊的墨水中金属的存在与其他古代纸莎草纸中的金属存在，这些古纸莎草纸主要发现在埃及和(数量少得多)在近东。