title: Revealing metallic ink in Herculaneum papyri.
abstract: Writing on paper is essential to civilization, as Pliny the Elder remarks in his Natural History, when he describes the various types of papyri, the method of manufacturing them, and all that concerns writing materials in the mid-first century AD. For this reason, a rigorous scientific study of writing is of fundamental importance for the historical understanding of ancient societies. We show that metallic ink was used several centuries earlier than previously thought. In particular, we found strong evidence that lead was intentionally used in the ink of Herculaneum papyri and discuss the possible existence of ruled lines traced on the papyrus texture. In addition, the metallic concentrations found in these fragments deliver important information in view of optimizing future computed tomography (CT) experiments on still-unrolled Herculaneum scrolls to improve the readability of texts in the only surviving ancient Greco-Roman library.
authors.affiliation: Inserm U1216, F-38000 Grenoble, France; Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences, F-38000 Grenoble, France;
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0332-4903
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brun
authors.affiliation: The European Synchrotron, 38043 Grenoble, Cedex, France; Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale, CNRS-Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UMR 8220, 75005 Paris, France;
authors.forename: Marine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cotte
authors.affiliation: The European Synchrotron, 38043 Grenoble, Cedex, France;
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: The European Synchrotron, 38043 Grenoble, Cedex, France;
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruat
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium;
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tack
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium;
authors.forename: Laszlo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vincze
authors.affiliation: The European Synchrotron, 38043 Grenoble, Cedex, France;
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferrero
authors.affiliation: CNRS-Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, 75016 Paris, France; Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi, 80131 Napoli, Italy;
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Delattre
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi (CNR-IMM), Unità di Napoli, 80131 Napoli, Italy vito.mocella@cnr.it.
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mocella
keywords: Herculaneum papyri; metallic ink; paleography; papyrology; ruled lines