| Author | Message | ||
     Howard Mark (hlmark) Senior Member Username: hlmark Post Number: 216 Registered: 9-2001 |
Bruce - there are certainly many ancient documents that were written on parchment, including ones of religious, as well as historic interest. Before paper was invented, there weren't too many choices for a substrate to write things on. Clay tablets were apparently common, but were heavy and therefore couldn't be transported easily, also they couldn't be folded or rolled up to reduce their bulk. Some of these parchments go back hundreds, and maybe even thousands of years, although they might not be dated as you describe. \o/ /_\ | ||
| Bruce H. Campbell (campclan) Moderator Username: campclan Post Number: 113 Registered: 4-2001 |
A recent article in Wired Science told about determining the age of parchment. It struck me that NIR could do the same much easier. Is anyone interested in using NIR for this? I think many museums would be very interested in such an approach. The article said there are many parchments that have dates on them, thereby giving a good calibration and validation set. I believe the approach could work as not only the basic foundations of parchment but the chemicals used to treat/tan the parchment would change as a function of time. The only real question in my mind is would the changes be of sufficient "concentration" to be detected and to yield enough precision to be useful. Bruce |