Palaeoecological research of the palm-leaf manuscripts from The Asia and Pacific Museum collection

Our Museum has started a very interesting collaboration with the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding written artefacts” and the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (University of Hamburg, Germany) represented by Professor Agnieszka Helman-Ważny and Dr. Anastasia Poliakova.

During her research visit Dr. Poliakova collected samples of the palm-leaf manuscripts to investigate how exactly and with which plants in addition to palms the manuscripts were created in the past. Her research involves molecular, paleoecological and microscopic analysis that helps to identify the palm species used as written support as well as to reveal other plant components. 



The digitised collection of manuscripts and printed books

The Asia and Pacific Museum’s collection of manuscripts and printed books currently consists of 200 artefacts demonstrating the diversity of writing traditions of the Asian continent. They include the largest collection of Tibetan, Burmese and Indonesian books in Poland, as well as single manuscripts from other regions of Asia. Some of the books are elaborately illustrated. This is predominantly true of Chinese and Japanese woodblock prints and painting albums.

The vast majority of the manuscripts were written using black ink on paper or engraved on palm leaves. Some of the Tibetan buddhist texts were created using xylography or, less commonly, moveable type.

Depending on the manuscripts’ place of origin, materials used for their creation include handmade paper, palm leaves, bark, bamboo slates, parchment, and even gold-plated lacquered canvas or copper plates.

All the manuscripts from the Asia and Pacific Museum collection have been digitised and can be found at the website https://manuskrypty.muzeumazji.pl/

 

Dr. Anastasia Poliakova 

Dr. Poliakova is a Principal Investigator of the project RFA4 “Paleogenomic Studies of Written Artefacts of Different Origin” at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding written artefacts”, University of Hamburg (Germany) and a head of the palaeogenomic laboratory. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Göttingen. Her dissertation was focused on the reconstructions of the past vegetation patterns and had a title ‘Vegetation, climate, fire dynamics and human impacts in Java and southern Kalimantan inferred from pollen, spore and charcoal deposits in the Java Sea during the late Holocene’. Anastasia pursued independent research in molecular plant biology, palaeoecology and data analysis.

Dr. Agnieszka Helman-Ważny

Dr. Agnieszka Helman-Ważny is a bibliologist and paper scientist. Her publications include monographs and articles on the history of the regional production and usage of paper and books in Tibet and Central Asia, including The Archaeology of Tibetan Books (Brill, 2014). Using interdisciplinary methods in collaboration with private collectors, museum curators, Tibetan artisans and personal experience in “experimental manuscriptology,” Dr. Helman-Ważny’s work seeks to establish paper typologies and apply modern technologies in the identification and dating of pre-modern non-western manuscripts, including the Dunhuang manuscripts.