We report the first in‐depth, systematic study of the Raman spectra of black pigments on ancient Egyptian papyri with well‐specified dates from the 4th century bce to the 10th century ce. The observed spectra are all characteristic of carbon black, but the shapes of the spectra change systematically with the manuscript date, a striking observation given the time span represented. We conclude that the pigments for these papyri were manufactured by using similar processes. We attribute these experimentally observed changes to chemical degradation, possibly the result of the oxidation of both amorphous carbon and crystalline aromatic carbon within these pigments. This investigation offers new insights into the ink materials used in ancient Egypt and provides a possible basis for a new nondestructive means for estimating the dates of ancient papyri. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

No abstract