Egypt Exploration Society

Tanning Tests for Two Documents Written on Animal Skin

Author(s): Bridget Leach
Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 81 (1995), pp. 241-243
Published by: Egypt Exploration Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3821826
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the publishedcatalogue,Drovettidonatedboth papyrito this libraryin 1827.33As this information

cannot be sustained by other evidence, I suspect it is based on a mistake.
I conclude that of the three so-called Denon papyri,only the copy of the Book of Breathings
Made by Isis on Denon's pl. 136 was in the Denon collection on a permanent basis. The two
funerarypapyriof Osorkon(pls. 137-8) were presumablyonly in his possession for a short period
in order for them to be included in the Voyage. Their designation as Denon papyri is based
exclusively on their inclusion in the Voyage.Between 1802 and 1809, both papyriwere bought
by Divov father or son in Paris and turned up in 1827 in St. Petersburgin the collection of the
National Libraryof Russia.At the auction of Denon's antiquitiesin 1827, the Book of Breathings
Made by Isis was bought by Baron van Westreenen, the founder of the present MeermannoWestreenianumMuseum in The Hague. The fourth Denon papyrus,the Ptolemaic Book of the
Dead described above,was sold at the same auction,but its present locationis unknown.
MARCCOENEN*

Tanning tests for two documents written on animal skin

Descriptionof testingtwo animalskin manuscripts(BM EA 10122,10281/2)for vegetabletanninsto determine
the methodof skinpreparation.

EVIDENCE
for the production of leather and parchment in ancient Egypt comes from the
examinationof the survivingmaterial,or from representationson tomb walls. From the archaeological evidence it appears that craft practices were well established in Egypt by the New
Kingdom.' As far as ancient Mesopotamia is concerned, cuneiform tablets survive, dated
1600-1000 BC,with recipes and methods used in skin preparation.2Some references from
classical times are reported,3and, from aroundthe seventh centuryADonwards,the Arabswere
responsible for disseminating much informationabout the craft practices of the Middle East.
There is, however,very little certain evidence for methods of skin preparationin ancient Egypt,
and only a limited amountof informationcan be deduced by examiningskins with the nakedeye.
This paper concerns an investigation,drawingon two particularexamples,into one aspect of skin
preparationin Egypt, namely when the materialwas to be used for writing. In particular,were
the skins preparedas a parchment,or tanned as in leatherproduction?
There are many differences between the manufacturingprocesses of leather and parchment,
but one essential difference is that parchmentis dried under tension, thereby restructuringthe
dermal networkof the skin and stretching the fibres, setting them permanentlyin this position
when dry.Another difference is that leather is tanned;this process of treatingskins with various
vegetable products causes an irreversiblechemical change in the dermal network,changing the
skin into leather. However,in antiquitythe differences were not necessarily so clearly defined,
and it seems that skins could be preparedas a parchmentand then some sort of tannageapplied
afterwards.4Whether this would have been the case in the preparationof writing materials is
uncertain. Sometimes visual means alone are enough to distinguish between parchment and
33Catalogue des manuscrits et xylographes orientaux de la BibliothequeImperiale Publique de St.
Petersbourg (St. Petersburg, 1852= Leipzig, 1978), x. This version is also given in Evgenova, Trudy

GosudarstvennoiPublichnoiBiblioteki,7-8, and in Niwiniski,ThebanFuneraryPapyri, 47-8. I thank Prof.

E. Waegemans for translating the relevant passage from the article of Evgenova.
* Aspirant van het Belgisch Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Ondersoek.
1 A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries4, revised by J. R. Harris (London, 1989), 33-7;

R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology2,V (Leiden, 1966), 22-34.

2 R. Reed,AncientSkins, Parchmentsand Leathers (London, 1972), 87-9.
3 Forbes,Studies, 48-57.
4 Reed,AncientSkins, 122-3.

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leather,but an additionaldifficultywith ancient materialis that it can have deterioratedbadly or

have had repairsor dressings appliedto it in recent times. If this is the case, chemical tests for
the presence of tannins can be used to some effect, and these are described here. The presence
of tannin alone cannot lead to a conclusion that the material is a leather, but it can give an
indicationof the more likely identification.Likewise,the absence of tannins can only point to the
possibilitythat the skin was preparedas parchment,but this cannotbe stated definitely.
The collections in the Department of EgyptianAntiquities in the British Museum contain
several leather and parchmentmanuscripts.They include an illustratedNew Kingdom Book of
the Dead (EA 10473), a hieratic Book of the Dead (EA 10281), a mathematicaltext (EA 10250),
a literarytext (the Teachingof a Man for his Son, EA 10258), and four Coptic magical scrolls
(EA 10122, 10376, 10391, 10414). These manuscriptsare very fragile, and by their nature do not
alwayslie flat as is the case with papyri;consequently,they can be difficult to mount and store
safely. Two of them were recently sent to the Departmentof Conservationfor treatment,namely
EA 10122and EA 10281/2.
EA 10122 is one of four Coptic magicalscrolls in the collection coming from the same ancient
archive,dated tentativelyto the sixth or seventh centuryAD.5 It has all the appearanceof a strip
of brownleather.There are some small missing areas,and parts are verybrittle;it is also stained
and fractured.The hair and the flesh sides have been written on in black ink, and it measures
approximately35 cm in length, and 8 cm at its widest part.
EA 10281 is a hieratic Book of the Dead, and comprises a series of fragments which are
mounted in thirteen glass frames. They represent a master copy of a Book of the Dead, which
apparentlyhad, in antiquity,been adaptedfor privateuse by one Nebimes; it can be dated by the
hieratic hand to the early Eighteenth Dynasty.6All the frames contain one or more fragments.
The second frame contains three, the smallest being 2.8
x 4 cm and the largest 12.5x 4.4 cm.
Both the larger fragments have, at some time in the more recent past, been very heavily
'varnished',giving them an almost black lacquer-like sheen on the surface. This had totally
obscured the black ink, and only the red ink was visible. Infra-redphotographyhas, however,
enabledthe text to be read.The fragmentshad been laid down onto cardand are now verybrittle,
with many hairline cracks. The smallest fragment of EA 10281/2, however, had escaped the
'varnishing'and is still a creamybrowncolour.
Once the mountswere opened it was possible to carryout tests on the skins before conservation
work started. Attempts to identify the animal type by comparing grain patterns under the
microscopewere unsuccessful, as the skins in both manuscriptswere too degraded.The test for
tannins that was used is verysimple.7Tannins give strong colourswhen treatedwith certainiron
salts; indeed this is the way iron-gallink is produced.8Therefore, if an iron salt is reactedwith
a few fibres of a vegetabletanned leather,it will darkenthe fibres to an intense blackwhich may
have a blue, grey, or greenish tint. The change is very markedand can be seen clearlyeither by
the nakedeye, or under the microscopewhen single fibrescan be tested. Whenthe leathersample
is alreadya very darkbrown,almost black, colour, the colour change can be difficultto see. This
is somewhateased by studyingsingle fibres, as they appearless colouredthan the bulk material.
The iron salt used in this case was ferrous sulphate (2% FeSO4w/v in distilledwater).9Small
samples were taken from both documents under the microscope. From the Coptic manuscript
fibres were teased awaywith tweezers from the inner layerof the material,thereby avoidingthe
surface layerswhich may have received later tannin coatings or dressings, and also avoidingthe
5

W. E. Crum, 'MagicalTexts in Coptic',JEA 20 (1934), 51-3, 195-200, pls. ix.2, xxv.

Shorter,'A LeatherManuscriptof the Book of the Dead in the BritishMuesum',JEA 20 (1934),
33-40, pls. iv-vii; S. Quirke,Ownersof FuneraryPapyri in theBritishMuseum(BritishMuseumOccasional
92; London, 1993), 16-17, 46 no. 123.
Paper
7
Althoughsimple by scientific standards,this test should of course be carriedout only in a laboratory
by personneltrainedto handle archaeologicalmaterialand familiarwith scientifictesting methods.
8 J. Watrous,The Craftof Old MasterDrawings (Madison,1957), 69-72.
9 R. Larson, 'Micro-chemicalDeterminationof
VegetableTannin',LeatherConservationNews 7 (1990),
no. 1 (pages unnumbered);Reed, Ancient Skins, 273-9; V. Daniels, Evaluation of a Testfor Tannin in
Leather (BritishMuseum ConservationResearchReportNo. CA 1993/1;London, February1993).
6 A. W.

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inked areas. With the hieratic document, it was the small unvarnishedareawhich was sampled,
since here the ink was visible, and could therefore be avoided.In this case, a few fibres were
scraped awaywith a scalpel, as the materialwas very brittle. Each sample was then placed on a
glass slide and divided into two small bunches. One of the bunches on each slide served as a
control, and the other had a drop of the ferrous sulphate solution pipetted onto it. Both sets of
fibres were then examined under the microscope.Colour change can take up to severalhours to
develop but usually occurs after about fifteen minutes. The Coptic manuscript showed a very
definitedarkeningof fibres,but the hieraticfragmentdid not react.This indicatedthat the Coptic
document (EA 10122) was written on a vegetable tanned material and is therefore possibly a
leather, and the hieratic fragments (EA 10281) a non-tanned material,most likely a parchment
or vellum.10Furthermore,pH measurementsgave the followingresults:pH 4
Coptic manuscript
Book of the Dead fragments pH 5-6
The more acidic nature of the Coptic scroll is consistent with a vegetable tanned leatherwhich
contains acidic residues from the tanningprocess.
BRIDGETLEACH

10The terms parchment and vellum have become almost interchangeable. Vellum used to mean parchment made from calf skin, which produces a particularly thin and strong material. Today, the word vellum
does not necessarily mean a skin prepared from calf skin, but can mean any fine and strong parchment
regardless of the animal species used (Reed, Ancient Skins, 126).