Ancient Egypt, Papyrus
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The Egyptians invented and used many simple machines, such as the
ramp and the lever, to aid their construction processes. Egyptian
paper made from papyrus and pottery was mass produced and exported
to the entire Mediterranean basin. The wheel, however, did not
arrive until foreign invaders introduced the chariot.
Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus
plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15
ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt.
Papyrus is first known to have been used in ancient Egypt (at least
as far back as the First dynasty), but it was also widely used
throughout the Mediterranean region, as well as inland parts of
Europe and south-west Asia. |
A sheet of papyrus is made from the stem of the plant. The outer
rind is first stripped off, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut
lengthwise into thin strips of about 40 cm long. The strips are then
placed side by side on a hard surface, with their edges slightly
overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at a
right angle. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough
for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is
not certain. While still moist, the two layers are hammered
together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet is then
dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet of papyrus is polished
with some rounded object, possibly a stone.
To form the long strip that a scroll required, a number of such
sheets were united, placed so that all the horizontal fibers
parallel with the roll's length were on one side, all the vertical
fibers on the other. Greek texts were written on the recto, the
lines following the fibers, parallel to the long edges of the
scroll. Secondarily, expensive papyrus was often reused, writing
across the fibers on the verso.
In a dry climate like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it
is of highly rot-resistant cellulose; but storage in humid
conditions can result in molds attacking and eventually destroying
the material. Imported papyrus that was once commonplace in Greece
and Italy has since deteriorated beyond repair, but papyri are still
being found in Egypt; extraordinary examples include the Elephantine
papyri and the famous finds at Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi. The
Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, containing the library of Lucius
Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar's father-in-law, was
preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but has only been
partially excavated.
In the first centuries BC and AD Papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a
writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from
animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from
which book-form codices were fashioned. Early Christian writers soon
adopted the codex form, and in the Gręco-Roman world it became
common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls in order to form codices.
By 800 AD the use of parchment and vellum had replaced papyrus in
many areas, though its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced
by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs. The reasons for this
switch include the significantly higher durability of the
hide-derived materials, particularly in moist climates, and the fact
that they can be manufactured anywhere. The latest certain dates for
the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree and 1087 for an
Arabic document. Papyrus was used as late as the 1100s in the
Byzantine Empire, but there are no known surviving examples.
There have been sporadic attempts to revive the manufacture of
papyrus during the past 250 years. The Scottish explorer James Bruce
experimented in the late eighteenth century with papyrus plants from
the Sudan, for papyrus had become extinct in Egypt. Also in the
eighteenth century, a Sicilian named Saverio Landolina manufactured
papyrus at Syracuse, where papyrus plants had continued to grow in
the wild. The modern technique of papyrus production used in Egypt
for the tourist trade was developed in 1962 by the Egyptian engineer
Hassan Ragab using plants that had been reintroduced into Egypt in
1872 from France. Both Sicily and Egypt continue to have centers of
limited papyrus production.
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