Biology

Parchment

Hebrew Bible

Literature

Archaeology

Food science

Dead Sea Scrolls

Biblical studies

Horticulture

Chemistry

Polymer science

Art history

Browning

History

Polymer Degradation and Stability

The Dead Sea Scrolls, a two-thousand-year-old parchment corpus of manuscripts, thought to be the most important discovery of the 20th century including the first known copies of the Hebrew Bible, have darkened in parts to the point that the text is illegible. This motivated our research to try to understand the browning of parchment mechanisms. The scrolls cannot be analyzed by any destructive methods, so alternatives had to be sought. Here we describe a series of artificial aging experiments using modern parchment, prepared especially for our project, according to traditional methods, demonstrating how the different types of browning observed on the scrolls relate to environmental conditions as well as post finding treatments. Even the most extreme browning could be caused by prolonged exposure to water. This was in complete variance from controlled relative humidity exposure, where even elevated temperatures over a full five months caused only mild browning. We also confirm browning occurs at room temperature and within short periods when parchment is wet. We noted greater darkening of the flesh side in short term experiments, while browning was similar on both sides in conditions where water or humidity levels were maintained over a longer period. Artificial aging also confirmed the damage to the lower ends of many scrolls was likely caused by capillary actions when parchment was standing in water. That experiment also showed a dark tide-line phenomenon at the wet-dry interface, similar to that observed in paper substrates. Using analytical methods including FTIR, SEM, Light microscopy, UV–Vis and Fluorimetry we found the browning was always associated with denaturation, or loss of structure, mostly due to water and heat. This results in a flattening of the parchment structure which could be altering how light is reflected. However, in one artificial aging experiment the color was clearly seen to migrate and disperse over the parchment, after its initial formation. We believe this means the color is due to dark pigments; therefore, the main mechanism we suggest is melanoidin pigment formation due to a Maillard type reaction between amino acids and sugars or oxidized lipids, which are perhaps freed to react due to denaturation and hydrolysis. The results collected here can serve as an important step towards a full mechanistic understanding of parchment browning.

Parchment browning and the Dead Sea Scrolls – Part I: Artificial aging