Inks from a Roman Military Roll

Olivier Bonnerot

P. Hamb.graec. 184 from the collection of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky is a 4.33 m long papyrus roll containing receipts for faenarium, i.e. payments for hay, for soldiers of the Ala veterana Gallica, an cavalry auxiliary regiment of the Roman army stationed in Egypt. The scroll, dated from 179 CE, contains more than forty entries recording the names of soldiers from the auxiliary unit, where they state having received hay money. The entries were most probably written by the soldiers themselves, or by comrades of the same regiment when they were not able to write themselves (Hunt, p. 469). The inks from fragments P. 184.A and P. 184.I of the roll were analysed (see What is My WA Made of?) by infrared reflectography with the OPUS Apollo Infrared Reflectography (IRR) mobile imaging system, and by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy with the Bruker M6 Jetstream. This allowed the identification of different inks based on carbon and containing different amounts of calcium, iron and copper on fragment P. 184.I (see Carbon-Based Ink and Paint, Mixed Inks). Furthermore, the strikes visible on the map of calcium concentration suggest that the top right entry of this fragment was erased and written over (Fig. 1, Bonnerot and Mascia 2023). By contrast, no calcium or metals were found in the inks of fragment P. 184.A, except for the bottom right entry, which contains traces of lead (Fig. 2). The presence, not only of different hands, but also of different inks on the roll, suggests that the roll was brought to be filled and signed to the different camps where the troopers of the Ala veterana Gallica were stationed (see How Can Different Writing Initiatives Be Distinguished?, How Can My Paleographical Analysis Be Corroborated?).