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A unique sample of ink from an inkwell in the Schoyen Collection allegedly found at Qumran has been subjected to analyses by several analytical techniques: GC-MS, proteomic analysis, PXRD, Raman, (ATR) FT-IR, LIBS, ICP-MS and MS. The results reveal to an unexpected level of detail how the ink was manufactured, which gives insight into, the industrial processes and craftsmanship that were practiced at the Qumran settlement during the Second Temple period (100 BCE-CE 70). The identified minerals and other organic and inorganic materials are sufficiently multiple and diverse that it is probable that this specific ink can be recognized if analyses. of inks are performed on manuscripts from Qumran and other locations in Israel and the Middle East. The present work exposes a distinct and unique possibility to shed light on early Jewish manuscript controversies, including their provenance. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts were contaminated with castor oil in the late 1950s. We have conducted experiments in order to establish if the AAA pretreatment cleaning procedures conducted on Dead Sea Scroll manuscript samples in the last two dating series (Bonani et al. 1992; Jull et al. 1995) were effective in removing oil contamination. Our experiments show that not all oil contamination can be expected to have been removed by the acid-alkaline-acid (AAA) pretreatment, and that the radiocarbon ages previously reported therefore cannot be guaranteed to be correct. Any samples contaminated with castor oil were most likely reported with ages that are too young by an unknown amount.

In the Comment by Dr. I. Rabin from Bundesanstalt fur Materialforschung und -prufung in Berlin are stated many conjectures and apparent guesses contradicting several of our interpretations. Most of Rabin's ‘guesses’ and interpretations are unwarranted. Below we rebut some of the misinterpretations under separate headings.