Papyrus is a material similar to thick
paper that was used in ancient times as a
writing surface. It was made from the
pith of the papyrus plant,
Cyperus papyrus, a wetland
sedge. The
English word "papyrus" derives, via
Latin, from
Greek πάπυρος (papyros), a loanword of unknown (perhaps
Pre-Greek) origin. Greek has a second word for it,
βύβλος (byblos), said to derive from the name of the
Phoenician city of
Byblos. The Greek writer
Theophrastus, who flourished during the 4th century BCE, uses
papyros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and
byblos for the same plant when used for nonfood products, such as cordage, basketry, or writing surfaces. The more specific term
βίβλος biblos, which finds its way into English in such words as 'bibliography', 'bibliophile', and 'bible', refers to the
inner bark of the papyrus plant. Papyrus is also the
etymon of 'paper', a similar substance. In the
Egyptian language, papyrus was called wadj (w3ḏ), tjufy (ṯwfy), or djet (ḏt).
Papyrus (plural: papyri) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined together side by side and rolled up into a
scroll, an early form of a book.Papyrus is 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. It was also used
throughout the Mediterranean region and in the
Kingdom of Kush. Apart from a writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other
artifacts, such as
reed boats,
mats,
rope,
sandals, and
baskets.
Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE.
Papyrus is made from the stem of the papyrus plant,
Cyperus papyrus. The outer rind is first removed, and the sticky fibrous inner
pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips of about 40 cm (16 in) 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. The two layers possibly were glued together. 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 is polished with some rounded object, possibly a stone or seashell or round hardwood.
Sheets, or
kollema, could be cut to fit the obligatory size or glued together to create a longer roll. The point where the
kollema are joined with glue is called the
kollesis. A wooden stick would be attached to the last sheet in a roll, making it easier to handle. To form the long strip scrolls required, a number of such sheets were united, placed so all the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll's length were on one side and all the vertical fibres on the other. Normally, texts were first written on the
recto, the lines following the fibres, parallel to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibres on the
verso.
Pliny the Elder describes the methods of preparing papyrus in his
Naturalis Historia.
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 destroying the material. Library papyrus rolls were stored in wooden boxes and chests made in the form of statues. Papyrus scrolls were organized according to subject or author, and identified with clay labels that specified their contents without having to unroll the scroll. In European conditions, papyrus seems to have lasted only a matter of decades; a 200-year-old papyrus was considered extraordinary. Imported papyrus 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.
Sporadic attempts to revive the manufacture of papyrus have been made since the mid-18th century.
Scottish explorer
James Bruce experimented in the late 18th century with papyrus plants from the
Sudan, for papyrus had become extinct in Egypt. Also in the 18th century,
Sicilian Saverio Landolina manufactured papyrus at
Syracuse, where papyrus plants had continued to grow in the wild. During the 1920s, when Egyptologist
Battiscombe Gunn lived in
Maadi, outside Cairo, he experimented with the manufacture of papyrus, growing the plant in his garden. He beat the sliced papyrus stalks between two layers of linen, and produced successful examples of papyrus, one of which was exhibited in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo. 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 have centres of limited papyrus production.
Papyrus is still used by communities living in the vicinity of swamps, to the extent that rural householders derive up to 75% of their income from swamp goods. Particularly in East and Central Africa, people harvest papyrus, which is used to manufacture items that are sold or used locally. Examples include baskets, hats, fish traps, trays or winnowing mats, and floor mats. Papyrus is also used to make roofs, ceilings, rope and fences. Although alternatives, such as
eucalyptus, are increasingly available, papyrus is still used as fuel.
The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at
Wadi al-Jarf, an
ancient Egyptian harbor located on the
Red Sea coast. These documents, the
Diary of Merer, date from c. 2560–2550 BCE (end of the reign of
Khufu). The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the
Great Pyramid of Giza. 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. 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 Græco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices.
Codices 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. Papyrus had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. 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 was replaced in Europe by the cheaper, locally produced products
parchment and
vellum, of significantly higher durability in moist climates, though
Henri Pirenne's connection of its disappearance with the Muslim conquest of Egypt is contested. Its last appearance in the
Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, though it was known in
Gaul until the middle of the following century. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree (typically conservative, all
papal bulls were on papyrus until 1022), under
Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by less expensive
paper introduced by the
Islamic world who originally learned of it from the Chinese. By the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the
Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option.
Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices.
Pliny the Elder and
Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus which were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, and smooth the writing surface was. Grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits (10 inches) wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits (four inches) wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping.
Until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known, and museums simply showed them as curiosities. They did not contain literary works. The first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at
Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the only papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. Scholarly investigations began with the Dutch historian
Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens (1793–1835). He wrote about the content of the
Leyden papyrus, published in 1830. The first publication has been credited to the British scholar
Charles Wycliffe Goodwin (1817–1878), who published for the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society, one of the
Papyri Graecae Magicae V, translated into English with commentary in 1853.
