{
 "id": "parchment",
 "names": {
  "name": "Parchment",
  "native": "קלף",
  "script": "Hebrew",
  "lang": "he",
  "said": "klaf",
  "aliases": [
   "klaf",
   "vellum",
   "hide"
  ]
 },
 "region": [
  "levant",
  "ancient-egypt",
  "himalaya-tibet",
  "diaspora"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "IL",
  "EG",
  "CN"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "kind": "written"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "Animal skin, scraped, limed and dried until it will take ink and keep it. It is the durable end of the written charm: stronger than papyrus, far stronger than paper, and in one tradition the only surface a charm may legally be written on at all.",
  "story": "Jewish practice states the material rule in law. A mezuzah is a piece of parchment, klaf, inscribed with passages from Deuteronomy and fixed in a case to a doorpost. It must be written on parchment by a specially trained scribe, a sofer stam, in indelible black ink, with a quill made from a feather or — now quite rare — a reed. A photocopy of the text on paper, sold with a decorated case, is not a valid mezuzah. Observant households have the parchments checked by a scribe for tears and faded lettering at least twice every seven years.\n\nTefillin put the same material inside leather. The boxes are fashioned from a single piece of animal hide; inside are scrolls of parchment carrying four passages, the arm box holding all four on one strip and the head box holding one scroll in each of its four compartments. There are 3,188 letters to write, and a sofer can take as long as fifteen hours over a complete set. The letters must be written in sequence: a mistake found later cannot be corrected, because the replacement letter would have been written out of order. That is a material discipline as much as a legal one — parchment takes a correction visibly.\n\nEarly Egyptian Christians wrote textual amulets on strips of papyrus, parchment and other materials, using scriptural incipits — the opening words of the Gospels, the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 91 — in Greek and Coptic, to cure bodily illness and to keep demons off. Those survive from late antiquity, roughly 300 to 700 CE, and almost all of them come out of Egypt. Tibetan Buddhist practice encloses prayers on a parchment scroll inside a prayer wheel, where each rotation counts as one recitation of everything written inside.\n\n*Inference —* parchment is a skin, and the tradition that guards it most closely is also the one that will not make images. A charm that refuses a picture still puts the words on an animal.",
  "how": "Written by hand with a quill, in ink the tradition specifies; rolled, then cased in wood, metal, leather or clay. Checked, repaired and replaced on a schedule where the tradition sets one.",
  "today": "Still written by scribes, still checked, still sold with the case as a separate purchase — and the distinction between the parchment and its case is where most of the market confusion sits."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "late antiquity to the present",
  "from_year": 300,
  "to_year": null,
  "living": true,
  "label": "c. 300 CE to now",
  "method": "dated-object",
  "circa": true,
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-amulet",
  "note": "Dated from the surviving Egyptian Christian textual amulets, c. 300-700 CE, written on papyrus, parchment and other materials. Jewish use of parchment for mezuzot and tefillin is older than any date these sources give."
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "demons",
   "who": "early Egyptian Christians, whose parchment and papyrus amulets carried Gospel incipits and Psalm 91 against them",
   "source": "s:wp-amulet",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "illness",
   "who": "the same writers, who made the amulets to cure bodily illnesses",
   "source": "s:wp-amulet",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "house",
   "who": "Jewish households, who fix the inscribed klaf to the doorpost as the commandment directs",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "the mezuzah is a commandment first; whether it is an amulet is argued within the tradition, and this atlas reports the argument rather than settling it"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "mezuzah",
   "as": "the parchment itself is the object; the case is decoration, and a paper copy in a case is not one",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "tefillin",
   "as": "4 passages, 3,188 letters, written in order on klaf and sealed into boxes of a single piece of hide",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "ethiopian-magic-scroll",
   "as": "the other great parchment charm, cut to the owner's height and rolled",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "kamea",
   "as": "the written Jewish amulet, on parchment where it is not on metal",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "jewish-practical-kabbalah",
   "as": "the tradition that legislates this material and rejects every substitute for it",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "paper",
   "as": "the cheap replacement this tradition refuses by name",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "skin",
   "as": "the same substance, on a living body instead of a scraped one",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "ink",
   "as": "the other half: indelible, black, and specified by law",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "inscribing",
   "as": "the practice that makes the object — in sequence, with no correction possible",
   "rel": "practice"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Mezuzah — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezuzah"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-mezuzah",
  "s:wp-tefillin",
  "s:wp-amulet",
  "s:wp-phylactery"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:wp-tefillin",
    "note": "the closing sentence is this project's inference and is marked in the text"
   }
  }
 },
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Mezuzah klaf.jpg"
 ],
 "confidence": "high",
 "schema": 1,
 "type": "material",
 "images": [],
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "Animal skin, scraped, limed and dried until it will take ink and keep it.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "levant",
   "name": "The Levant",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "ancient-egypt",
   "name": "Ancient Egypt",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ],
   "note": "Nile valley and delta, Predynastic through Roman Egypt"
  },
  {
   "key": "himalaya-tibet",
   "name": "The Himalaya and Tibet",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "diaspora",
   "name": "Diaspora",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "S",
    "E",
    "W"
   ],
   "note": "a practice carried out of its home region and kept"
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N",
  "S",
  "W"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "mezuzah",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Mezuzah",
   "as": "the parchment itself is the object; the case is decoration, and a paper copy in a case is not one",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "tefillin",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Tefillin",
   "as": "4 passages, 3,188 letters, written in order on klaf and sealed into boxes of a single piece of hide",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "ethiopian-magic-scroll",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ethiopian talismanic scroll",
   "as": "the other great parchment charm, cut to the owner's height and rolled",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "kamea",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Kamea",
   "as": "the written Jewish amulet, on parchment where it is not on metal",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "jewish-practical-kabbalah",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Practical Kabbalah",
   "as": "the tradition that legislates this material and rejects every substitute for it",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "paper",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Paper",
   "as": "the cheap replacement this tradition refuses by name",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "skin",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Skin",
   "as": "the same substance, on a living body instead of a scraped one",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "ink",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Ink",
   "as": "the other half: indelible, black, and specified by law",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "inscribing",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Inscribing",
   "as": "the practice that makes the object — in sequence, with no correction possible",
   "rel": "practice"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-mezuzah",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Mezuzah",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezuzah",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-tefillin",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Tefillin",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-amulet",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Amulet",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amulet",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-phylactery",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Phylactery",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylactery",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-tefillin",
   "note": "the closing sentence is this project's inference and is marked in the text"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "demons",
   "label": "Demons and night-hags",
   "who": "early Egyptian Christians, whose parchment and papyrus amulets carried Gospel incipits and Psalm 91 against them",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-amulet",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "illness",
   "label": "Illness",
   "gloss": "sickness in general, where no cause is named",
   "who": "the same writers, who made the amulets to cure bodily illnesses",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-amulet",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "house",
   "label": "Harm to a house or a field",
   "who": "Jewish households, who fix the inscribed klaf to the doorpost as the commandment directs",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-mezuzah",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "the mezuzah is a commandment first; whether it is an amulet is argued within the tradition, and this atlas reports the argument rather than settling it"
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [],
 "worn_facts": [],
 "form_fact": null,
 "holding_facts": [],
 "span": "300 CE to now",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "IL",
   "name": "Israel"
  },
  {
   "iso": "EG",
   "name": "Egypt"
  },
  {
   "iso": "CN",
   "name": "China"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "ethiopian-magic-scroll",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ethiopian talismanic scroll",
   "as": "the material, and the animal that stood in for the patron before it became one",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "from": "mezuzah",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Mezuzah",
   "as": "the material the law specifies, and the reason a printed copy in a silver case is not one",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "from": "tefillin",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Tefillin",
   "as": "what the passages are written on, and where a single out-of-order letter invalidates the set",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "from": "ethiopian-scroll-craft",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Ethiopian scroll craft",
   "as": "the material, and the animal that stood in for the patron before it became one",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "from": "jewish-practical-kabbalah",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Practical Kabbalah",
   "as": "the material this tradition legislates and accepts no substitute for",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "from": "palindrome-word",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The word that reads both ways",
   "as": "what the triangle was written on and worn at the neck",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "from": "palm-leaf",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Palm leaf",
   "as": "the dry world's equivalent, and the reason the Mediterranean amulet record is fuller than the monsoon one",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "paper",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Paper",
   "as": "the material paper is not allowed to replace, in the one tradition that says so in writing",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "merkato-addis",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Merkato",
   "as": "the material the scroll is written on, and the reason its making starts with an animal",
   "rel": "material"
  }
 ]
}