Inks: Technology and the Human ecosystem

I The History of Ink

The earliest paints and inks were created by humans using pigments derived from natural sources, such as minerals, or from basic human activities, such as charcoal, combined with water. To utilise them, it was sufficient to create a homogeneous mixture with the liquid and the pigment, as was the case with prehistoric rock art. Because of its simplicity and efficiency, this technique remained almost unchanged until Ancient Egypt, when a key innovation appeared: the incorporation of adhesives such as gum Arabic (a vegetable resin obtained from certain species of acacia that is soluble in water and used as a binder). This improved the adhesion and durability of inks and paints on various surfaces. During the Greco-Roman era, inks contained preservatives (salt, clove oil and vinegar) that prolonged their life and prevented the growth of mould and bacteria. Furthermore, some of these ingredients, such as Artemisia absinthium L., also helped to protect texts by repelling insects and rodents (Dioscorides, De Materia medica 3.23).

Although the natural environment constituted the main source of ingredients in pre-modern times, human ingenuity took advantage of new opportunities arising from activities such as metallurgy, mining and glassmaking. With the rise of writing and the increasing complexity of administration during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the demand for ink exceeded the capacity of artisanal production.

This resulted in the industrialisation of the supply of raw materials. Vitruvius (De architectura 7, 10) describes large furnaces fuelled with wood and resins that were specifically built to produce and collect soot in large quantities for ink production. However, the most notable example of human inventiveness in the development of ink technology is the invention of inks derived from chemical reactions, such as iron-gall ink.