Unless the papyrus was of perfect quality, the writing surface was irregular, and the range of media that could be used was also limited. Papyrus had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. Roman portraiture fresco of a young man with a papyrus scroll, from Herculaneum, 1st century ADĬodices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking and a long roll, or scroll, was required to create large-volume texts. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Greco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices.
Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned. In the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza. 2560–2550 BCE (end of the reign of Khufu). These documents, the Diary of Merer, date from c. The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 20 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE. History A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus Apart from a writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts, such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Papyrus was first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as the First Dynasty), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta. Papyrus (plural: papyri or papyruses ) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.Īn official letter on a papyrus of the 3rd century BCE It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. Papyrus ( / p ə ˈ p aɪ r ə s/ pə- PY-rəs) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. BM EA 10591 recto column IX, beginning of lines 13–17) For other uses, see Papyrus (disambiguation).
For the plant it is made from, see Cyperus papyrus. This article is about the paper-like material.
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