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Damage to an ancient parchment document by Aspergillus

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Abstract

Damage to the Aleppo Codex (Halab), the earliest Hebrew Old Testament, has been found to have been caused by a member of the genus Aspergillus, rather than fire. The Codex was written on parchment in Tiberias in the tenth century A.D. After a period in Jerusalem and Egypt, it was transferred to a synagogue in Aleppo (Halab), Syria which was set on fire in 1947. It is now on permanent loan to the Israel Museum. The lower corners of all of the pages were found to be aubergine colored, brittle, and breaking away. Examination of fragments from the damaged areas with phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy revealed the presence of septate, hyphalike filaments. However, similar filamentous structures were not observed in fragments from undamaged areas of the manuscript. The filaments in damaged regions were found with a specific fluorescent antobody stain to be Aspergillus hyphae.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Microbiology, The Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

    I. Polacheck

  2. New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research, Albany, NY, USA

    I. F. Salkin

  3. Laboratory for Restoration of Works of Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

    D. Schenhav, L. Ofer & M. Maggen

  4. State Department of Education, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, USA

    J. H. Haines

Authors
  1. I. Polacheck
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  2. I. F. Salkin
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  3. D. Schenhav
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  4. L. Ofer
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  5. M. Maggen
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  6. J. H. Haines
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Polacheck, I., Salkin, I.F., Schenhav, D. et al. Damage to an ancient parchment document by Aspergillus . Mycopathologia 106, 89–93 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00437086

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00437086

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