PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Tefillin are Jewish ritual artifacts consisting of leather cases, containing inscribed slips, which are affixed with leather straps to the body of the tefillin practitioner. According to current Jewish ritual law, the tefillin cases and straps are to be colored black. The present study examines seventeen ancient tefillin cases discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves in the Judean Desert. All seventeen cases display grain surfaces with a very dark, nearly black appearance. We start with a hypothesis that the cases were intentionally colored black in antiquity using either a carbon-based or iron-gall-based paint or dye. The aim of this study is to test this hypothesis by subjecting these tefillin cases to a battery of examinations to assess the presence of carbon and iron used as pigments, and of organic materials which may have been used as binding agents in a paint. The tests deployed are: (1) macroscopic and microscopic analyses; (2) multispectral imaging using infrared wavelengths; (3) Raman spectroscopy; (4) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); and (5) scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The results of these tests found no traces of carbon-based or iron-gall-based pigments, nor of organic compounds which may have served as binders in a paint. These results suggest that our posited hypothesis is unlikely. Instead, results of the SEM examination suggest it more likely that the black color on the surfaces of the tefillin cases is the result of natural degradation of the leather through gelatinization. The Judean Desert tefillin likely represent tefillin practices prior to when the rabbinic prescription on blackening tefillin was widely practiced. Our study suggests that the kind of non-blackened tefillin which the later rabbis rejected in their own times may well have been quite common in earlier times.
摘要：
Tefillin是由皮箱组成的犹太仪式文物，包含有铭文的纸条，用皮革带固定在tefillin从业者的身体上。根据现行的犹太仪式法,tefillin表壳和表带应涂成黑色。本研究调查了在朱迪斯沙漠洞穴中的死海古卷中发现的17个古代特菲林病例。所有十七个案例都显示出非常暗的颗粒表面，几乎是黑色的外观。我们从一个假设开始，即这些案例在古代故意使用碳基或铁胆基涂料或染料着色为黑色。这项研究的目的是通过对这些tefillin案例进行一系列检查以评估用作颜料的碳和铁的存在来检验这一假设，和有机材料，这些材料可能已被用作涂料中的粘合剂。部署的测试是：（1）宏观和微观分析；（2）使用红外波长的多光谱成像；（3）拉曼光谱；（4）傅立叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）；（5）扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和能量色散X射线（EDX）光谱。这些测试的结果没有发现碳基或铁胆基颜料的痕迹,也不包括可能在油漆中用作粘合剂的有机化合物。这些结果表明，我们的假设不太可能。相反，SEM检查的结果表明，tefillin表壳表面的黑色很可能是皮革通过糊化自然降解的结果。Judean沙漠tofillin可能代表了在广泛使用变黑tofillin的拉比处方之前的tofillin做法。我们的研究表明，后来的拉比在自己的时代拒绝的那种不变黑的tefillin可能在早期很普遍。
