VM parchment

Eumenes, king of Pergamus, introduced the use of Parchment properly
"dressed" for taking ink and pigments and hence the derivation of the word
"pergamena" as applied to parchment or vellum, the former substance being
the prepared skin of sheep, and the latter of calves. 1:

Parchment is an unique material. In the days before synthetics chemists
used
it to purify colloidal solutions in a process called dialysis. The pores of
the parchment
are of such size that they will allow the ions through but will not let the
colloidal
particles pass. This is a very good filter. Even the most expensive
laboratory
filters made of paper will not do this.
When ink(Gallotannate ink) is applied to "fresh" parchment the ink will not
diffuse but form a nice line. The salts (ions) would penetrate but the
coloring would stay near the surface.
After some years the volatile portions of the ink will diffuse somewhat
into the parchment forming a light brown or yellowish line. The darker
portion will stay near the surface and often harden.
This is the same process as in chromatography only somewhat slower. With
handing the darker outer portion of the ink will often fall off leaving just
a brown or yellowish line that has to be viewed under U.V. light in order to
be seen with ease.
Afer some time the parchment will begin to dehydrate. This will not
affect much the writing that
was done when the parchment was new. New ink applied to old parchment will
diffuse into the
skin its self forming a boarder line and not showing the chromatographic
effect. This is a dead giveaway for a forgery. That is one reason that
forgers almost never use old parchment to make their
forgeries.3: They chose however to use new parchment and ink and "age" both
with various methods.
New ink applied to old parchment can be spotted by an expert in seconds with
just a microscope.
On the other hand a well done forgery using "aged" parchment and ink
requires the use of a good
laboratory to detect.



"Scientists from the University of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Energy?s
Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Smithsonian Institution have used
carbon-dating technology to determine the age of a controversial parchment
that might be the first-ever map of North America. In a paper to be
published in the August 2002 issue of the journal Radiocarbon , the
scientists conclude that the so-called ?Vinland Map? parchment dates to
approximately 1434 A.D., or nearly 60 years before Christopher Columbus set
foot in the West Indies. "


1:Forty Centuries of Ink
David N. Carvalho

Gallotannate inks are made from Gallnuts,
Crystallized ferrous sulfate, Gum Arabics and Water See note 2:
2:The oxidation that causes the blackening does not cease abruptly when all
the ferrous iron is converted into ferric iron, for the dye and the gallic
and tannic acids are also subject to oxidation. In the course of time the
dye will disappear. If this occurs before the two acids have been affected
the writing will still be black, but no longer blue-black [if blue dye was
employed]. This is normal for a well balanced ink, but if the ink maker
depended more upon dye than upon iron gallotannate, the aging writing will
never go through the true black stage, but that when all the dye is gone, a
substantial part of the gallic and tannic acids will have gone with it,
leaving writing with a brownish color. If the paper endures long enough,
finally nothing will be left of the writing but rusty lines of ferric oxide.
....
>From Circular of the National Bureau of Standards C413, "INKS"
U.S. Department of Commerce, Issued December 28, 1936
By C. E. Waters
3: Blank parchment several hundred years old is very rare and expensive.




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Relevant Pages

  • Re: VM reading lesson
    ... > regarding the ink. ... > information it seems to be all about the parchment. ... resulted in the 20th century anatase turning up on the Vinland Map. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: VM reading lesson
    ... > Does anyone know if the Danes were planning to investigate the ink? ... >> information it seems to be all about the parchment. ... The above posting is neither a legal opinion nor legal advice, ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... He accepts that the ink ... >>already poorly visible ink and the intervening parchment in a bleaching ... The process adds modern anatase from the coating of special ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Vineland
    ... I understand that it is generally accepted that the parchment comes ... >am unclouding the issue by arguing that the map lacks proper ... >> I think not, since Eric's point was that saying that the ink ... >a wider range if the history of anastase is incomplete. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Why DH? (was Re: Balaam as the epitome of evil)
    ... >You said there was no writing on parechment. ... Papyrus writing exists that far back. ... parchment, but the leaves of the papyrus plant, softened ... Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University ...
    (soc.culture.jewish.moderated)