Lead found in ancient writing on Herculaneum scrolls
MAR 22, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029677
BBC : Some 2000 scrolls were buried in a villa in Herculaneum when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. When unearthed in the 18th century, the scrolls were found to be badly charred and fragile; any attempt to read them caused further damage. Now Emmanuel Brun of the European Synchrotron and colleagues have used 3D x-ray imaging to reveal the writing. Surprisingly, the ink contains high levels of lead . Researchers had thought that metal was not used in ink until some four centuries later. Knowing about the lead in the ink should help optimize future scans and discern the writing, says Brun.
© 2016 American Institute of Physics
