Characterization of the Chemical Nature of the Black Ink in the Manuscript of <i>The Gospel of Jesus's Wife</i> through Micro-Raman Spectroscopy

Yardley, James T.; Hagadorn, Alexis

doi:10.1017/s0017816014000157

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Recently, the list was increased by: an illuminated Manueline foral charter (LeGac et), a 16th century printed Book ‘Osorio’ with colourful fore‐edge Miniatures (Lukačević, et al), the Manueline foral charter of Sintra (Manso et al), a rare Old Slavic manuscript (Kostadinovska et al), a royal 15th century illuminated parchment (Duran et al), a 15th century manuscript (Zoleo et al), the Manuscript of The Gospel of Jesus's Wife (Yardley and Hagadorn) and the pre‐Hispanic Maya ‘Madrid Codex’ (Buti et al).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

Bersani

Lottici

2016

J Raman Spectroscopy

144

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Minerals, as raw structural materials or pigments, play a fundamental role in archaeometry, for the understanding of nature, structure and status of an artefact or object of interest for cultural heritage. A detailed knowledge of the mineral phases is crucial to solve archaeological problems: Raman spectroscopy is a powerful investigation technique and has been applied extensively in the last 30 years on mineral identification and on pigment degradation. Here we report an updated review, covering the last decade, of the applications of Raman techniques to issues in which raw minerals, including mineral pigments, are involved. Particular attention is devoted to cases where the Raman analysis of minerals is deeper than a simple identification of the phases present in an archaeological or artistic object. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

Bersani

Lottici

2016

J Raman Spectroscopy

144

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“…As part of this debate, Krutzsch and Rabin discussed several methods for characterizing ancient writing materials as applied to GJW. With respect to our preliminary description of the raw Raman spectra for the pigments in GJW, they raised some technical questions that we quantitatively clarify here. However, they also questioned the scientific value of characterization of GJW through Raman spectroscopy, concluding that the results are ‘not sufficient to support authenticity of [GJW]’.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the age of ancient Egyptian manuscripts through micro‐Raman spectroscopy

Goler

Yardley

Cacciola

et al. 2016

J. Raman Spectrosc.

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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.

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“…They asserted that the GJW was forged by association with the fragment of John, since the two papyri shared ‘exactly the same hand, exactly the same ink and … [were] written with the same writing instrument’ (Askeland 2014a). Somewhat ironically, these scholars came to this conclusion in part by reading the full initial report of our work, which had been posted online and contained detailed images of the papyri (Yardley and Hagadorn 2013). The irony lies in the fact that we asserted at that time, and still maintain, that the ‘ink or inks used in GJW are similar to, but distinct from, the ink used for the Gospel of John manuscript’ (Yardley and Hagadorn 2014: 164).…”

Section: The Gospel Of Jesus’ Wife and The Gospel Of Johnmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Subsequently, in February 2016 team members went to Boston to take small ink samples, in order to examine the morphology of the pigment particles with a scanning electron microscope. Our initial work on these controversial papyri was published as an appendix to Karen King’s ﬁrst article in the Harvard Theological Review (Yardley and Hagadorn 2014). Between the publication of that article and the summer of 2016, the authenticity of the GJW was debated vigorously, both in the traditional academic press and online, with the general consensus shifting decidedly over that period against the fragment’s antiquity, in no small part because the Gospel of John fragment was shown to have been copied from Herbert Thompson’s 1924 edition of the Cambridge Qus codex.…”

Section: The Gospel Of Jesus’ Wife and The Gospel Of Johnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dating Ancient Egyptian Papyri through Raman Spectroscopy: Concept and Application to the Fragments of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and the Gospel of John

Goler¹,

Yardley

Ratzan³

et al. 2019

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

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The Ancient Ink Laboratory is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental working group based at Columbia University and New York University dedicated to exploring the chemical nature of ancient inks. We report here the results of a systematic study of the Raman spectra of 23 Egyptian papyri from the fourth century bce to the tenth century ce and its implications for two controversial papyri: the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and an associated fragment bearing a text from a Coptic Gospel of John. Close study of the Raman spectra reveals speciﬁc variations that correlate closely with the date of writing. This discovery enables us to determine the average Raman spectroscopic parameters as a function of manuscript date and so establishes, in principle, the basis for a non-destructive scientiﬁc model capable of predicting the date of ancient manuscripts written in carbon ink from Egypt for the period deﬁned by this study. We have analyzed Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and the Gospel of John according to this methodology and present our ﬁndings here in the context of our wider study and our current research.

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Characterization of the Chemical Nature of the Black Ink in the Manuscript of The Gospel of Jesus's Wife through Micro-Raman Spectroscopy

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

Characterizing the age of ancient Egyptian manuscripts through micro‐Raman spectroscopy

Dating Ancient Egyptian Papyri through Raman Spectroscopy: Concept and Application to the Fragments of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and the Gospel of John

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