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

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Jürgen Hammerstaedt; Professorin Ira Rabin, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Analytical Chemistry
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 523631590

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.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Major Instrumentation: Röntgenfluoreszenz- und Reflextionsspektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 4030 Röntgenfluoreszenz-Spektrometer
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Vito Mocella