SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

50 Chapter 3: Writing and Writing Materials
f. Ink
To date, insufficient research has been conducted regarding the ink used in the documents from
the Judean Desert, which were almost exclusively written with black ink, while in a few texts red
ink was also used. For a general study of the types of ink used in antiquity and the Middle Ages,
see Diringer, The Book, 544–53 and Ashton, Scribal Habits, ch. 3. Scholars suggested and partly
identified the existence of two types of black ink in antiquity, but the pattern of their distribution
in the scrolls is unknown:
• Carbon ink, based on lampblack or soot, described by Vitruvius, De Architectura, VII.10 2
and Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, V.162.
• Iron-gall ink, consisting of copperas (green vitriol), treated with a decoction of oak-nut
galls. 98
In m. Shabb. 12.4, various types of writing liquids are mentioned, partly coinciding with the
components of the inks assumed for the Qumran texts: µs (arsenic [caustic]), arqs (red chalk),
swmwq (gum), and µwtnqnq (sulphate of copper [copperas]). 99 Further, in m. Shabb. 12.5, additional
liquids and materials are mentioned which disappear after the writing: unspecified liquids, fruitjuice,
dust of the roads, and writer’s sand.
On the basis of examinations carried out on several fragments from caves 1 and 4 in 1995, Nir-
El–Broshi, “Black Ink” concluded that no metal ink was used in writing the Qumran scrolls. 100
These scholars assumed that the copper elements in the ink used for the papyrus and leather
fragments derived from copper inkwells used by scribes, and that the ink used was carbon-based.
A similar suggestion was made earlier by H. J. Plenderleith, DJD I, 39 for the texts from cave 1,
by S. H. Steckoll 1968 (see n. 98), and by Haran, “Workmanship,” 81–4 on the basis of
theoretical observations. On the other hand, according to the editors of 4QpaleoExod m in DJD IX,
18, the ink used in that manuscript contained iron. However, according to Haran, metal-based ink
was used only from the second century CE onwards.
That different types of black ink were used is clear from the differing states of its
preservation. While in most cases, the ink has been preserved very well, on some scrolls it has
corroded and eaten through the leather, often creating the impression of a photographic negative.
This is the case with 1QapGen ar, 4QpaleoExod m , 4QExod-Lev f , 4QLev d , 4QDan d ,
4QShirShabb g (4Q406). According to F. M. Cross, DJD XII, 133, the ink has etched the leather
‘presumably because of some residual acid in the ink from its storage in a metal inkwell.’ On the
other hand, according to Nir-El–Broshi, “Black Ink,” this deterioration was caused by the binding
agents of the carbon-based ink, namely ‘vegetable gum, animal size, oil or honey.’
Red ink is used in four compositions, apparently mainly for new units:
2QPs: The first two lines of Psalm 103.
4QNum b : The first line(s) or verse(s) of new sections; see the analysis in ch. 5a3.
4QD e (4Q270) 3 i 19: Heading of a new section; see ch. 5a3.
4Q481d, a composition of undetermined nature (named ‘4QFragments with Red Ink’ by E. Larson, DJD
XXII): Unclear circumstances.
For the use of red ink to indicate new units, cf. Egyptian literary texts from the eighteenth dynasty onwards in
which a raised dot (often in red ink) indicated the end of a section; see Janzen, Hiërogliefen, 45; A. F. Robertson,
Word Dividers; J. Assmann, “Die Rubren in der Überlieferung der Sinuhe-Erzählung,” in Fontes atque pontes: Eine
98 The description is by Nir-El–Broshi, “Black Ink.” For earlier literature, see S. H. Steckoll, “Investigations of the Inks
Used in Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Nature 220 (1968) 91–2.
99 The English translations are by H. Albeck, d[wm rds ,hnçm yrds hçç (Jerusalem/Tel Aviv 1958) 48. Alternative
translations in brackets are by H. Danby, The Mishnah (Oxford 1964).
100 See further Y. Nir-El, “mqwrw sl hs≥b>n bdyw sh≥wrh bktybt sprym, tpylyn wmzwzwt,” Sinai 57 (1993–94) 261–8. For
a different type of evidence, see Milne–Skeat, Scribes, 79–80 who remarked on the ink of codex S: ‘ . . . the ink was in
the main an iron compound, and not the old carbon-and-gum ink which is found almost universally on papyri . . . a
carbon ink would not stick to the surface of the vellum, whereas a chemical ink held, often only too well.’ )