Eraser Helps Prove Medieval Parchments Were Made Of Adult Animal Skins
Reading has been around for millennia, but how we read (and what we read on) has changed dramatically over time. Take this story for example. You're reading it on some kind of computerized device, with pixels forming these words on a digital screen. Just a few decades ago you would probably be reading these words printed on paper. Time goes by so quickly doesn't it? Now go back even further. Several centuries before the present reading would be rare, and most important writing would be inscribed by hand onto prepared animal skins, but what kind of animal skins? For a long time, people assumed that the finest parchment, used for delicate beautiful books like pocket bibles, came from smaller animals like rabbits, or was made from the skins of newborn or aborted calves and sheep. The latter theory even gave rise to the name of the parchment, uterine...