12-11-2025, 11:21 PM
Regarding the noticeably darker single letters - can we determine whether this is another layer of different ink that was applied later or just a thicker layer of the original ink due to irregular ink flow from the quill pen? I must say those isolated darker letters which regularly pop up are curious but we must also take into account that this was not done with a modern instrument that provides uniform ink flow.
So I wonder - do the darker letters behave differently under the UV-IR spectrum which would point to ink with different composition - or is the darkness just the result of a higher thickness of the ink layer with identical composition than the rest of the ink?
Again, this is something that should be put to the test with 'experimental archaeology'
I doubt we could determine this from the MSI images though, it would probably take a real spectrometer that gives us more reliable data than a photograph. RAMAN would be awesome to tell us a lot more about the ink and paint.
So I wonder - do the darker letters behave differently under the UV-IR spectrum which would point to ink with different composition - or is the darkness just the result of a higher thickness of the ink layer with identical composition than the rest of the ink?
Again, this is something that should be put to the test with 'experimental archaeology'
I doubt we could determine this from the MSI images though, it would probably take a real spectrometer that gives us more reliable data than a photograph. RAMAN would be awesome to tell us a lot more about the ink and paint.