The answer to this question may be found in:
C. Basile, I papiri carbonizzati di Ercolano. La temperatura dei
materiali vulcanici e le tecniche di manifattura dei rotoli.
Quaderni del Museo del Papiro (Siracusa 1994).
Basile did experiments under controlled conditions and analyzed the
results in an attempt to see how the Herculaneum rolls were
carbonized. I think that he says that the two major components of
papyrus burn at different temperatures but I haven't got the
publication to hand.
David Blank
On Oct 15, 2007, at 8:52 PM, Tim Finney wrote:
451 Fahrenheit (233 Celsius) might not be a bad guess. You could
always
buy a recently manufactured sheet of papyrus and do an experiment to
find out.
Best
Tim Finney
On Mon, 2007-10-15 at 21:37 -0400, Timothy Renner wrote:
I've been asked by someone who is writing a novel at what
temperature papyrus burns. Would anyone like to offer an opinion?
--Tim
----------------
David Blank
Professor of Classics, UCLA
100 Dodd Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095
310-206-8562, msg. -825-4171, fax -206-1903
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