Dead sea scroll parchments: Unfolding of the collagen molecules and racemization of aspartic acid

Abstract

The parchments of the Dead Sea Scrolls were prepared from the skins of animals, mainly sheep and goats1,2. They were copied and hidden between the beginning of the first century BC and AD 703. Since then and until their discovery in the late 1940s by local Bedouins, they were located in caves close to the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea4. Having been handled by various intermediaries for periods of up to 8 yr, most of the intact scrolls are housed in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. We have examined small pieces (≲25 mm2) from these scrolls, together with random fragments without any writing, to study some of the chemical changes which have occurred in the past 2,000 yr or so. Using X-ray diffraction and racemization analyses, we found that a major degradative change is due to the unfolding of the collagen molecules to form gelatin and that the degradation generally occurred many centuries ago. © 1980 Nature Publishing Group.