ArticleScientific reports2023
Layout of ancient Greek papyri through lead-drawn ruling lines revealed by Macro X-Ray Fluorescence Imaging.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Broad Range Mid-IR Reflection Spectroscopy for Macroscale Standoff Hyperspectral Imaging of Paintings.ACS sensors · 2025Article
- Pulsed thermographic analysis of Herculaneum papyri.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Deep learning for enhanced spectral analysis of MA-XRF datasets of paintings.Science advances · 2024Article
- Artefact Profiling: Panomics Approaches for Understanding the Materiality of Written Artefacts.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The use of lead-drawn ruling lines by ancient scribes for the layout of Greek papyrus rolls was known to us only from classical authors and was postulated by a few scholars in modern times. In situ application of noninvasive Macro X-Ray Fluorescence Imaging Spectroscopy (MA-XRF) to unrolled papyri from Herculaneum, dating from about 200 BC to the 1st century AD, has provided the first direct evidence of such practice in ancient book production. The key experimental proof of periodic lines drawn in lead was gathered by a highly sensitive MA-XRF mobile instrument, which allowed detection of ultra-low trace residues of metals with detection limits that rival synchrotron light instruments. Elemental distribution maps of Pb have revealed three different systems of textual layout in ancient papyrus rolls and have resolved the dispute around so-called Maas' Law, by delivering experimental proof that slanted text columns were a deliberate aesthetic choice of scribes.
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