My Experiment
How to recreate Egyptian ink ?
In order to fully understand the writing technology in ancient Egypt, I need to conduct an experiment. The goal of this experiment is to recreate the most important tool that scribes needed to write on a papyrus or on an ostracon, the ink. In addition, to be able to use the ink, I will need to make a kalam. In order, to make ink, I must first identify what th components of natural ink are. We must have pigments and a binder to make the pigments adhere to the surface. Second, I must imagine that I am living in ancient Egypt and do not have all the modern products that we can find to make colors. Everything must be natural.
* The pigments : I will work on black pigments, because it was the most common color used by scribed. To make black pigments, we can use soot, charcoal or burned bones. The easier way for me is to use soot.
* The binders : Two different binders are generally used. Gum Arabic and egg tempera. Egg tempera is very ancient and famous. Icons, paintings were made using egg tempera through the centuries, even on Egyptian sarcophagi. Since it's generally used on hard surfaces, and not paper, I believe it to be more suitable for pottery. Gum Arabic is probably better for papyrus and softer surfaces.
* The surface : I cannot reproduce a papyrus, so I will use an ostracon, made from a modern Egyptian pottery.
* The kalam : I should use a reed, since it was used by scribes. But if I cannot find one, I will need to use another natural product.
My material list :
- I found a bamboo as a Kalam. Bamboo naturally grows in Egypt, so even if the scribes used reeds, bamboo may be a good kalam. My experiment will validate or invalidate this hypothesis.
- the surface will be a modern ostracon, made up of natural piece of Egyptian pottery
- The pigments will come from soot, that I will make alone by burning Egyptian palm tree
- The binder will be a yolk from an Egyptian egg, since I decide to choose the method of the egg tempera.
- Mineral Water ( will be added to the pigment )
My experiment will answer this question : is it possible to make a durable ink for an ostracon following the egg tempera process ?
Step 1
This is a part of the palm tree that I burned.
Step 1
And this is the rest of the palm tree. I did not burn all of that, but only the softest parts.
Step 2
After the burning, this is the soot I collected and the few tree pieces that did not burn.
Step 3
This is the bamboo that will play the role of a kalam. It comes from Egypt and I will try to cut one of its end, as the Egyptians used to do.
Step 3
This is the knife I used to cut its end. Of course, it does not look like an Egyptian knife, To cut their reed, Egyptians could have used a copper knife which would probably have a different shape than this modern knife.
Step 4
After have cutting it, the end of the bamboo looks a little bit like the end of the traditional kalam used by the scribes.
Step 5
Now, I gather the other items : the soot, the egg and the glass of water.
Step 6
Then, I separate the yolk from the white.
Step 7
After that, I add a few drops of water to my soot.
Step 8
I immediatly mix the soot with the yolk.
Step 9
Then, I take my ostracon.
Step 10
Finally, I dip my bamboo into the ink and draw on the ostracon the hieroglyphs of the word meaning "Eternity".
Step 11
This is the final result ! That's my ostracon one day later.
Title Text. Cliquez ici pour modifier.
Comparison with an ancient ostracon
http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/
kings%20and%20Queens/setyII-endDyn19.html
This ostracon comes from the tomb of Queen Tawosret, Great Wife of Sethy II, who became later a female Pharaoh.I will compare this ostracon with my ostracon and see the difference.
my conclusion is that it's difficult to compare. Tawosret's ostracon still has a good quality of color. Mine is darker, since it's newer. The drawings seem thiner on this one, probably because they used reed and not bamboo to write. Concerning the ink itself, this ostracon has a very good one, and for now, my ink seems resistant also for now. The following weeks and months will validate or invalidate this first impression.
my conclusion is that it's difficult to compare. Tawosret's ostracon still has a good quality of color. Mine is darker, since it's newer. The drawings seem thiner on this one, probably because they used reed and not bamboo to write. Concerning the ink itself, this ostracon has a very good one, and for now, my ink seems resistant also for now. The following weeks and months will validate or invalidate this first impression.
Conclusions
The problems I faced : The biggest problem was the bamboo. Since it was not dry, it was not easy to cut its end. Even if I could cut it well, I had to tried many times. Also, the bamboo was not very thin. reed Kalams in ancient Egypt used to be thiner. It did not prevent me from drawing as I wanted but it was not easy to cut it.
Otherwise, I did not face any other problem. Making fire was easy, collecting the soot also and doing the rest of the experiment too.
Is my experiment fair ? If we look at the products I used, we can notice that they were all available in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians could have made soot with palm tree, used the process of egg tempera as well as ostraca like mine. Only three things may cause problems : the knife I used which has nothing to see with the kind of knife used in ancient Egypt, as well the the spoons, the matches that I used to make the fire ( the Egyptians did not used matches ), and the bamboo. Although bamboo grows in Egypt, it was not used for writing. As I said, they used reed. But in case of a lack of reed, bamboo may have been a good alternative.
Conclusion : egg tempera is very efficient for surfaces such as pottery. I could have added oil to the yolk, like linseed oil, but I had not with me. So, we can say that oil is not always needed for egg tempera, at least with the kind of pigment I used. Soot is also a good pigment at least with that process. The bamboo is also a good tool, but might be better if thiner. The ink that I made dried very quickly, so I could not preserve it, it must be used immediatly. It would be intersting to know how the Egyptians did to keep ink with them and how they did to solve that problem.
Otherwise, I did not face any other problem. Making fire was easy, collecting the soot also and doing the rest of the experiment too.
Is my experiment fair ? If we look at the products I used, we can notice that they were all available in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians could have made soot with palm tree, used the process of egg tempera as well as ostraca like mine. Only three things may cause problems : the knife I used which has nothing to see with the kind of knife used in ancient Egypt, as well the the spoons, the matches that I used to make the fire ( the Egyptians did not used matches ), and the bamboo. Although bamboo grows in Egypt, it was not used for writing. As I said, they used reed. But in case of a lack of reed, bamboo may have been a good alternative.
Conclusion : egg tempera is very efficient for surfaces such as pottery. I could have added oil to the yolk, like linseed oil, but I had not with me. So, we can say that oil is not always needed for egg tempera, at least with the kind of pigment I used. Soot is also a good pigment at least with that process. The bamboo is also a good tool, but might be better if thiner. The ink that I made dried very quickly, so I could not preserve it, it must be used immediatly. It would be intersting to know how the Egyptians did to keep ink with them and how they did to solve that problem.