Using Raman spectroscopy to estimate the dates of carbon-based inks from Ancient Egypt

Goler, Sarah; Hagadorn, Alexis; Ratzan, David M.; Bagnall, Roger S.; Cacciola, Angela; McInerney, James O.; Yardley, James T.

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2018.12.003

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The peaks at about 1480 and 1200 cm −1 were D3 and D4, respectively. The D4 peak was related to the vibration of CC or CC bond, 52 and the D3 peak represented the amorphous component of coke 53 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ordinary clay as a support of nickel catalyst for steam reforming of acetic acid: Impacts of pretreatments of clay on catalytic behaviors

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ordinary clay is a widely distributed and abundantly available material with the potential use as support of nickel catalysts with low cost. For the steam reforming of acetic acid, this study demonstrated the feasibility of ordinary clay as carrier of nickel catalyst. The pretreatment of the clay via impregnation with H 2 SO 4 , leaching with H 2 SO 4 and pretreated with NaOH were carried out and the results indicated the substantial influences on physiochemical properties and catalytic behaviors of the catalysts. The Ni/Clay-NaOH catalyst contained the most developed porous structures due to the formation of the water soluble Na 4 SiO 4 by the solid-phase reaction between the SiO 2 in clay and NaOH, which also rendered this catalyst with the superior catalytic activity. In addition, Ni/Clay-NaOH catalyst also possessed the higher capability to gasify the reactive intermediates such as C C C and C O species as well as the C C species formed from the dissociative adsorption of acetic acid. This resulted in Ni/Clay-NaOH catalyst with the highest resistivity toward coking. The varied treatment of the ordinary clay also was the reason of the coke formed with the distinct morphologies such as the amorphous coke with layered structure, the carbon-nanotube form coke with single/multiple channels, defective structures, and varied sizes.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ordinary clay as a support of nickel catalyst for steam reforming of acetic acid: Impacts of pretreatments of clay on catalytic behaviors

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Bird et al 1999 ). Such degradation may impact the Raman spectra, as suggested by Goler et al ( 2019 ) who have shown that H D / H G ratios in carbon-based inks from ancient Egyptian manuscripts decrease with increasing age of the manuscripts.…”

Section: Background To Raman Spectroscopy Of Charmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…McDonald-Wharry et al 2013 ; Deldicque et al 2016 ) and degree of degradation (e.g. Goler et al 2019 ). Unlike the G band, the D band position is sensitive to the laser wavelength used so care should be taken when comparing Raman spectra of char acquired with different laser wavelengths (Vidano et al 1981 ; Mernagh et al 1984 ; Wang et al 1990 ; Russo and Ciajolo 2015 ).…”

Section: Background To Raman Spectroscopy Of Charmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterisation of charred organic matter in micromorphological thin sections by means of Raman spectroscopy

Lambrecht

Vera

Jambrina‐Enríquez

et al. 2021

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Burned or charred organic matter in anthropogenic combustion features may provide important clues about past human activities related to fire. To interpret archaeological hearths, a correct identification of the organic source material is key. In the present work, Raman spectroscopy is applied to characterise the structural properties of char produced in laboratory heating- and open-fire experiments. This reference data set is compared to analyses of three different archaeological sites with Middle Palaeolithic combustion contexts. The results show that it is possible to determine whether a charred fragment is the product of burning animal-derived matter (e.g. meat) or plant-derived matter (e.g. wood) by plotting a few Raman spectral parameters (i.e. position of G and D bands, and intensity ratios HD/HG and HV/HG) against one another. The most effective parameters for discriminating animal- from plant-derived matter are the position of the G band and the HV/HG intensity ratio. This method can be applied on raw sample material and on uncovered micromorphological thin sections. The latter greatly compliments micromorphology by providing information about char fragments without any clear morphological characteristics. This study is the first of its kind and may provide archaeologists with a robust new method to distinguish animal- from plant-derived char in thin sections.

show abstract

“…As far as ancient Egyptian papyri are concerned, the most commonly used inks were of organic origin (Christiansen et al 2017;Goler et al 2019), at least until the 4th century BCE. They were typically manufactured mixing some carbon-based materials, such as charcoal fragments, obtained from combustion of wood or other plant material, or soot, or also cokes, as derived from carbonization of e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct Radiocarbon Dating of Charcoal-Based Ink in Papyri: A Feasibility Study

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When dating documents by radiocarbon (14C), what we typically measure is the concentration of the support (e.g. paper, parchment, or papyrus). This can however lead to a possible misinterpretation of results because the support may be older than the writing itself. To minimize such a possible ambiguity, the ideal approach would be direct dating of the ink or color (if organic). Here we propose a feasibility study to date carbon-based black inks when deposited on papyrus, one of the most widespread writing supports used in the past. We prepared test samples, using a commercial papyrus and a homemade black ink, obtained combining modern charcoal fragments and Arabic gum. Even though the ink binder might have represented the best candidate to be dated, we verified by FTIR that the molecular composition of its soluble fraction is very similar to papyrus extractives, thus identifying the residual charcoals recovered after extraction as the most suitable material for the measurement. Enough charcoal material was extracted from the test samples and processed using our new setup optimized for microgram-size samples. The overall experimental procedure was found to be reproducible, and measured 14C concentrations were coherent with the data obtained from larger samples and raw materials.

show abstract

Using Raman spectroscopy to estimate the dates of carbon-based inks from Ancient Egypt

Cited by 20 publications

References 46 publications

Ordinary clay as a support of nickel catalyst for steam reforming of acetic acid: Impacts of pretreatments of clay on catalytic behaviors

Ordinary clay as a support of nickel catalyst for steam reforming of acetic acid: Impacts of pretreatments of clay on catalytic behaviors

Characterisation of charred organic matter in micromorphological thin sections by means of Raman spectroscopy

Direct Radiocarbon Dating of Charcoal-Based Ink in Papyri: A Feasibility Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About