I asked this question in archeology, got no answers, so maybe that was the wrong subreddit. Anyone here know, or know a better subreddit for an answer?
I'm looking for help for a story I'm writing. The story is fiction, but I want to be reasonably accurate in how I present the issues with dating manuscripts in the 1920s. I only know a little bit about that: mostly that radiocarbon dating won't work because it wasn't invented until the 1940s.
I'm not planning to go into GREAT detail in describing how the archaeologist sorts out the ancient manuscripts from the modern, but I don't want to be an idiot about it, either.
To give you the background so you understand the problem as set forth in the story: the archaeologist goes on an expedition to West Africa in search of ancient manuscripts and artifacts. He finds a (fictional) city that was built around an important silver mine circa 500 BC.
As the city grew rich it supported a guild of scholars who made and copied manuscripts from all over the ancient world, in Greek, in Egyptian, in Roman (and some manuscripts from totally unknown sources ... this is a work of fiction). It wasn't the library of Alexandria, but it produced a lot of manuscripts. Later, during the Caliphate, Arab scholars copied the manuscripts and so there was an additional trove of ancient manuscripts.
When the Arabs got into burning ancient manuscripts later, the manuscripts were hidden by the city's apothecaries and medicine men, because an unfortunate belief grew up that the manuscripts had magical powers, and that by including a portion of a manuscript in a potion or poultice, it increased its magical power.
Fortunately, it was believed that even the tiniest portion of the manuscript had the magic of the whole manuscript, so very, very tiny pieces were used and not as many manuscripts were destroyed as would have been otherwise.
Even more fortunately, most apothecaries quickly realized that their illiterate customers couldn't tell an ancient manuscript from a modern one, so they took parchments and made their own ancient manuscripts, which was in fact the vast majority of the manuscripts used in potions by apothecaries by the time our archaeologist gets there.
Also fortunately, the manuscripts are stored deep in the old silver mine, where the cool, dry air preserves them. And some troves of manuscripts get lost down there.
Now, how does our archaeologist sort out the good manuscripts from the bad? Even some of the modern "fake" manuscripts might have historical value, as some might have been copied from Arabic copies of unknown ancient documents of real value.
How would our archaeologist have sorted this out? Any help will be appreciated.
That's not surprising. Most modern archaeologists aren't trained in papyrology.
Manuscripts can generally be dated between 50-100 years based on script (handwriting style), linguistic variations (like changes in grammar or spelling over time), and dialect.
However, if your character only finds a Medieval copy of a text written around 100 CE (or whenever), unless s/he is already aware of the earlier text, there might be very little in the Medieval manuscript that would give him/her a hint that it's a copy of an earlier text.
For example, let's say I've never heard of the Gospel of Mark, and I find a Late Antique or early Medieval fragment of it. If there's nothing in the text itself to indicate that it is a copy of something originally written during the 1st/2nd century CE, then all I can do is date it based on things like handwriting, etc. So, if I'd never heard of the New Testament, or the story of Jesus, based on what I've gleaned from the date of the physical manuscript, the only thing I can be certain of is that the Gospel of Mark told a story that was contemporary to the manuscript. Thus, I might be led astray into assuming that the Gospel of Mark itself, and maybe even the life of Jesus, should be dated to Late Antiquity or the early Medieval period.
This book might be of some help: Roger S. Bagnall, The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.