HowshouldweeditaPapyruscollec3oninthe21stcentury?TheUniversityLibraryinBaselpossessesacollec5onof60papyri,mostlyinGreek,9inCop5c,2inHiera5cand1inLa5n.Lessthanhalfofthiscollec5onwaspublishedbyErnstRabelin1917inPapyrusurkundenderÖffentlichenBibliothekderUniversitätzuBasel(knownasP.Bas.).Thankstoatwo-yeargrantfromtheSwissNa5onalFounda5on(SNF),theBaselPapyrusProject,ledbyPr.SabineHuebner,beganonSeptember1st2015andaimstomakethiscollec5onavailabletoboththescholarlyaudienceandthegeneralpublic.
It offers a good opportunity to ques5on the prac5ce of a papyrus
editor, to take into account themajor
technologicalimprovementsimpac5ngthefieldofPapyrologyandmeasurehowmuchthemethodology
hasalreadychanged(oroughtto)fromthepioneerworksofe.g.
WilckenorGrenfellandHunt.Sincetheprojecthasjuststarted,thisposterdoesnotclaimatalltoerectnewstandardsorguidelinestofuturepublica5onsbutrathertogathersomeideasandmaybeserveasastar5ngpointforageneraldiscussionamongPapyrologistsonthemostefficientwaystoproceedintheDigitalcentury.
1.Imagingthepapyri
Thefirst step topublishor re-publishpapyri is of course tohave
access to them. For theBasel collec5on, all thepapyri are
easilyaccessible in theUniversity Library, very close to
theAltertumswissenscha[enbuildingwhere the teammembershave
theiroffice.Then,goodimagesareneeded.OnthispointwehavethechancetoworkwiththeDigitalHumani5esLab,aresearchins5tuteofthefacultyofHumani5esoftheUniversityofBasel.Butina5mewhenimagingtechnologiesevolvesoquickly,providingimpressiveresultsbuto[enbeing5meconsumingandcostly,amainques5onis«Whatshouldwebeasking?»,whatkindof
imagesarereleventtopapyruseditors?High resolu5on color images:
TheDH Labprovideduswithhigh resolu5on color imagesof both sidesof
all thepapyri, takenby
acamerain300dpi,inboth5fandjpegformats.Ithasbeensufficientforthefirstoverallstudyofthecollec5onbutonemaysuggest600dpiwouldhavebeenbeber.Somecollec5onsalsousescannersinsteadofcameras,whichgivemorehomogeneitytotheimagesandlessdistor5onattheedges(whichhasbeencorrectedinourcasebytheDHlab).TheDHLabhasalsostartedtotakeinfraredpictureswithregularinfraredluminescencetechniquebutitislookingnowforabebersecng,experimen5nggreenlightandIRfluorescencephotography.
2.Inkda3ngWehavethechancetocollaboratewithSarahGoleroftheColumbiaNanoIni5a5veandAncientInkLaboratoryatColumbiaUniversity(USA),whoseresearchaimstodeterminetheageofancientEgyp5anmanuscripts
throughmicro-Raman Spectroscopy. Micro-Raman spectroscopy is a
non-destruc5ve light scabering technique that can be used to
dis5nguish physical and
chemicalproper5esofmaterials.Theprojectmembershavediscoveredthat,forastudyofwell-datedancientEgyp5anpapyricoveringthedaterangefrom300BCEto900CE,theRamanspectraofblackinkallshowthecharacteris5cspectrumofcarbonblackmaterials.Theyalsoobservedthecarbonblackspectraexhibitsystema5cchangeasa
func5onofmanuscriptdate.Thisobserva5on
isunexpectedgiventhedatesofthesepapyricovera1,200-year5mespanandthefactthateachmanuscripthasauniqueprovenance,archeological,andstoragehistory.Theyconcludethat,overthis5me-period,blackinkpigmentsinEgyptweremanufacturedusingsimilarprocesses.Thesystema5cchangeobservedintheRamanspectrumislikelytocomefromtwoconcurrentoxida5onprocesses:
slow oxida5on of the crystalline carbon and faster oxida5on of the
amorphous carbon. The changes observed arewell characterized
bymodels for carbon black Raman
spectra.Oxida5vedegrada5onmustproceed rela5velyuniformlyover5me to
alter theRaman responseof thematerial, providing adirect
experimental indicator for theageof themanuscript.
Thisresearchthusestablishesthebasisforasimple,rapid,non-destruc5vemethodforda5ngancientmanuscriptsfromEgypt,aswellasdifferen5a5ngbetweenmodernforgeriesandauthen5callyancientmanuscripts.SarahGolerwillcometoBaselonDecember11thforaworkshoponancientinkda5ngandwilltakemeasurementsontheBaselPapyriwhoare,inmostofthecases,datedonlyaccordingtopaleography.Thisagecharacteriza5onshouldbeofgreathelpfortheedi5ngandcommen5ngwork.
3.VisibilityonlineCrea3on:Awebsiteisbeingcreated,presen5ngtheprojectandthehistoryofthecollec5on.Itwillcontainthepictureandtheeditedtextofeachpapyrustogetherwithitscommentary.Weareconsideringthepossibilitytolinkeachwordtoitsloca5onontheimage,sothatwhenaninternetuserwouldclickonaword,theimagewindowwillshowwherethiswordisonthepapyrus.Itwillbeapegagogictoolforstudentsandnon-specialistaudiencebutalsowouldsavesome5meforpapyrologistcolleagues.Wealsohaveinmindthat,thankstoDigitalPalaeographyprojectslikee.g.Anagnôsis
andAncientLives, it could soonbepossible to compare the shapeof the
lebers inorder to characterize the samehandwri5ngson fragments
fromdifferent collec5onsand
tofindmatchestodigitallyreconstructthecodices.ThefirststepwouldconcerntheLiterarytexts,
5fornowinGreekand4inCop5cintheBaselcollec5on,forwhichthetaggingofthepicturewouldnotonlybeforeachwordbutforeachleber.Theaddi5onofaresearchengine,whichwouldconvenientlycomeinlieuoftheindices,wouldcompletethisE-edi5on.Incorpora3ontoexistentprojects:Itseemedobviousfromthebeginningthatpartofourworkwastoincludethecollec5oninthemainonlinedata-bases,likethePapyrusportalandHGVforthemeta-data,butalsopapyri.info(whereboththeCop5candGreekdocumentarytextswillbeencoded).Ifpossible,theLiteraryGreektextswouldjointhespecificworkinprogressdata-base.
4.ReachingawideraudienceTheExhibi3onintheUniversityLibraryin2017willcoincidewiththe100thanniversaryofthefirstvolumeofP.Bas.andwillbethemajorpubliceventofourprogram.Aspecialfocuswillbemadeonthehistoryofthecollec5on,whoseoldestaquisi5oncanberelatedtotheHumanismmovement
in the 16th c. Efforts tomake all the documents understandable to
the
generalaudiencearebeingmadebylookingforthebestwaytodisplaythepapyributalsotheneededcontextualinforma5ontounderlinetheirownspecificinterest.StudentsinAncientHistorywilltakepartofthisevent,forexamplethroughresearchassignments.
RTI: TheDH Lab has the equipement for RTI (Reflectance
Transforma3onImaging), a computa5onal photographicmethod that
captures a
subject’ssurfaceshapeandcolorandenablestheinterac5vere-ligh5ngofthesubjectfromanydirec5on.Theyhavebuiltaspecificligh5ngdomethatallowthemtobe
fastandefficientonobjetsasbigasA2 seize. If this
technologyhasalready shown results when applied on carbonized
papyri
(Deverni,Herculanum),thegainforgeneralpapyrusedi5onhasnotyetbeenproven.We
are planning to give it a try on specific exampleswhere the
readingsneedtobeimproved.
TheteamProf.SabineHuebnerDr.W.GrahamClaytorDr.IsabelleMarthot-SantanielloDr.MabhiasMüller
Forfurtherinforma5onPresenta5onoftheproject:altegeschichte.unibas.ch/forschung/projekte/basel-papyrus-collec5on/DHLab:hbp://www.dhlab.unibas.ch/CulturalHeritageImaging:hbp://culturalheritageimaging.org/Technologies/RTI/AncientInkLaboratory:hbp://nano.columbia.edu/ancient-ink-laboratory-2
Infra-redandcolorimageofP.Bas.Inv.43
Theligh3ngdomeinDHLab,Basel.
ExamplesofRTIfromCulturalHeritageImaging
TheBaselPapyrusProject:
PostermadefortheworkshopAltertumswissenscha/eninaDigitalAge:
Egyptology,PapyrologyandBeyond,Leipzig,November4-6,2015
TheBaselPapyrusProjectgivestheopportunitytotrainstudentsandnon-specialistscholarstoPapyrologythankstoconferencesandworkshopsinBaselUniversity.
