soot, charcoal, or bone black

Ingredients

amorphous carbon, soot, charcoal, bone black, gum arabic

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Carbon ink is based on carbon compounds obtained from the burning or macerating of organic and inorganic materials such as wood, oil, and earth (p. 169). In Ancient Egypt, the soot or charcoal (d'b.t) was sometimes collected from calcined masonry and plaster surfaces, leading to terms like 'soot/charcoal from stone' (p. 171). The carbon is mixed with a binding agent, almost invariably gum arabic from the Acacia nilotica (L.) collected along the Nile (p. 170). Pliny describes the most esteemed black paint as obtained from the wood of the pitch-pine, with writing ink receiving an admixture of gum (p. 172). Dioscorides' formula specifies three oungiai of soot combined with one oungia of gum (p. 174).

Evidence

"Results by analytical means show that the majority of ancient papyri are inscribed with amorphous carbon in the form of soot, charcoal, or bone black, called in Ancient Egyptian d'b.t (Coptic: XBB(e)c)."

Remarks

The technology of writing ink is believed to have been obtained by the Greeks from the Egyptians (p. 168). The Egyptian term ry.t covers both raw material and the resulting substance compounded with gum and water (p. 169). Some specimens indicate soot was collected from calcined masonry, explaining the term 'soot/charcoal from stone' found in medical papyri (p. 171).