Showing posts with label ancient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ancient. Show all posts
Werewolves
Oribasius - 4thC CE > .
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Werewolf of Bedburg - 1589 > .
The Beast of Gévaudan - 1765 > .
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Werewolf of Bedburg - 1589 > .
The Beast of Gévaudan - 1765 > .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oribasius .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stumpp .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan .
3 "werewolf" cases: http://alam25.tripod.com/modern.htm .
Ambras Syndrome: The Curious Genetics of Werewolves .
Ambras syndrome is a very rare type of hypertrichosis lanuginosa congenita, a congenital skin disease characterized by excessive hair growth on the entire body, with the exception of the palms, soles, and mucous membranes. Individuals with Ambras syndrome have excessive growth of vellus (soft, fine and short) hair, especially on the face, ears, and shoulders. Facial and dental abnormalities may also be present. Ambras syndrome has been mapped to the short (q) arm of chromosome 8. It appears to follow an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrichosis .
Momentum Stick Potter's Wheel
Momentum Stick Wheel > .
"If this was the case why, after the Roman abandonment of Britain, do potters give up the potters' wheel as a making method? Pottery production still continues although on a much smaller scale. The issue is more one of training and space, vs returns. Fast wheel pottery takes several years to master, it's a serious piece of kit to construct, maintain and store and generally demands much more finely prepared clay. Clay that does not lend itself so well to open or clamp firing, both of which are better achieved with a coarser clay. Fine wheel thrown clay is far easier to fire in a kiln, another piece of equipment that needs to be built and maintained. Again, open firing can be achieved with almost any fuel, kilns on the other hand demand carefully prepared wood, gorse or brash. All time consuming and simply not worth it for domestic scale production."
Saxon Potter > .
"While I would agree that industrialization would be unnecessary in tiny communities, potters would still have needed to dry and fire their posts. Forget efficient economies of scale at the firing stage. I would have assumed that the impediment was more the mental leap from the concept of building pots from coils to the notion of shaping a rotating lump by pulling upward."
Response:
Ice Houses, Yakhchāl, Ice Merchants
.How people kept stuff cold before refrigerators > .
The ice trade, also known as the frozen water trade, was a 19th-century and early-20th-century industry, centring on the east coast of the United States and Norway, involving the large-scale harvesting, transport and sale of natural ice, and later the making and sale of artificial ice, for domestic consumption and commercial purposes. Ice was cut from the surface of ponds and streams, then stored in ice houses, before being sent on by ship, barge or railroad to its final destination around the world. Networks of ice wagons were typically used to distribute the product to the final domestic and smaller commercial customers. The ice trade revolutionised the U.S. meat, vegetable and fruit industries, enabled significant growth in the fishing industry, and encouraged the introduction of a range of new drinks and foods.
The trade was started by the New England businessman Frederic Tudor in 1806. Tudor shipped ice to the Caribbean island of Martinique, hoping to sell it to wealthy members of the European elite there, using an ice house he had built specially for the purpose. Over the coming years the trade widened to Cuba and Southern United States, with other merchants joining Tudor in harvesting and shipping ice from New England. During the 1830s and 1840s the ice trade expanded further, with shipments reaching England, India, South America, China and Australia. Tudor made a fortune from the India trade, while brand names such as Wenham Ice became famous in London.
Increasingly, however, the ice trade began to focus on supplying the growing cities on the east coast of the U.S. and the needs of businesses across the Midwest. The citizens of New York City and Philadelphia became huge consumers of ice during their long, hot summers, and additional ice was harvested from the Hudson River and Maine to fulfil the demand. Ice began to be used in refrigerator cars by the railroad industry, allowing the meat packing industry around Chicago and Cincinnati to slaughter cattle locally, sending dressed meat east for either the internal or overseas markets. Chilled refrigerator cars and ships created a national industry in vegetables and fruit that could previously only have been consumed locally. U.S. and British fishermen began to preserve their catches in ice, allowing longer voyages and bigger catches, and the brewing industry became operational all-year around. As U.S. ice exports diminished after 1870, Norway became a major player in the international market, shipping large quantities of ice to England and Germany.
At its peak at the end of the 19th century, the U.S. ice trade employed an estimated 90,000 people in an industry capitalised at $28 million ($660 million in 2010 terms), using ice houses capable of storing up to 250,000 tons (220 million kg) each; Norway exported a million tons (910 million kg) of ice a year, drawing on a network of artificial lakes. Competition had slowly been growing, however, in the form of artificially produced plant ice and mechanically chilled facilities. Unreliable and expensive at first, plant ice began to successfully compete with natural ice in Australia and India during the 1850s and 1870s respectively, until, by the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, more plant ice was being produced in the U.S. each year than naturally harvested ice. Despite a temporary increase in production in the U.S. during the war, the inter-war years saw the total collapse of the ice trade around the world. Today, ice is occasionally harvested for ice carving and ice festivals, but little remains of the 19th-century industrial network of ice houses and transport facilities. At least one New Hampshire campground still harvests ice to keep cabins cool during the summer.
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An Ice house, or icehouse, is a building used to store ice throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes, but many were buildings with various types of insulation.
During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from lakes or rivers, taken into the ice house, and packed with insulation (often straw or sawdust). It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during the summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of foods, but it could also be used simply to cool drinks, or in the preparation of ice-cream and sorbet desserts. During the heyday of the ice trade, a typical commercial ice house would store 2,700 tonnes (3,000 short tons) of ice in a 30-by-100-foot (9 by 30 m) and 14-metre-high (45 ft) building.
Yakhchāl (Persian: یخچال "ice pit"; yakh meaning "ice" and chāl meaning "pit") is an ancient type of ice house that functions as an evaporative cooler. Above ground, the structure had a domed shape, but had a subterranean storage space. It was often used to store ice, but sometimes was used to store food as well. The subterranean space coupled with the thick heat-resistant construction material insulated the storage space year round. These structures were mainly built and used in Persia. Many that were built hundreds of years ago remain standing.
During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from lakes or rivers, taken into the ice house, and packed with insulation (often straw or sawdust). It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during the summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of foods, but it could also be used simply to cool drinks, or in the preparation of ice-cream and sorbet desserts. During the heyday of the ice trade, a typical commercial ice house would store 2,700 tonnes (3,000 short tons) of ice in a 30-by-100-foot (9 by 30 m) and 14-metre-high (45 ft) building.
The trade was started by the New England businessman Frederic Tudor in 1806. Tudor shipped ice to the Caribbean island of Martinique, hoping to sell it to wealthy members of the European elite there, using an ice house he had built specially for the purpose. Over the coming years the trade widened to Cuba and Southern United States, with other merchants joining Tudor in harvesting and shipping ice from New England. During the 1830s and 1840s the ice trade expanded further, with shipments reaching England, India, South America, China and Australia. Tudor made a fortune from the India trade, while brand names such as Wenham Ice became famous in London.
Increasingly, however, the ice trade began to focus on supplying the growing cities on the east coast of the U.S. and the needs of businesses across the Midwest. The citizens of New York City and Philadelphia became huge consumers of ice during their long, hot summers, and additional ice was harvested from the Hudson River and Maine to fulfil the demand. Ice began to be used in refrigerator cars by the railroad industry, allowing the meat packing industry around Chicago and Cincinnati to slaughter cattle locally, sending dressed meat east for either the internal or overseas markets. Chilled refrigerator cars and ships created a national industry in vegetables and fruit that could previously only have been consumed locally. U.S. and British fishermen began to preserve their catches in ice, allowing longer voyages and bigger catches, and the brewing industry became operational all-year around. As U.S. ice exports diminished after 1870, Norway became a major player in the international market, shipping large quantities of ice to England and Germany.
At its peak at the end of the 19th century, the U.S. ice trade employed an estimated 90,000 people in an industry capitalised at $28 million ($660 million in 2010 terms), using ice houses capable of storing up to 250,000 tons (220 million kg) each; Norway exported a million tons (910 million kg) of ice a year, drawing on a network of artificial lakes. Competition had slowly been growing, however, in the form of artificially produced plant ice and mechanically chilled facilities. Unreliable and expensive at first, plant ice began to successfully compete with natural ice in Australia and India during the 1850s and 1870s respectively, until, by the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, more plant ice was being produced in the U.S. each year than naturally harvested ice. Despite a temporary increase in production in the U.S. during the war, the inter-war years saw the total collapse of the ice trade around the world. Today, ice is occasionally harvested for ice carving and ice festivals, but little remains of the 19th-century industrial network of ice houses and transport facilities. At least one New Hampshire campground still harvests ice to keep cabins cool during the summer.
Plagues & Pandemics
Plague in the Ancient and Medieval World - same > .
History of Pandemics mapped > .
Pandemics Economically Worse than War - First Pandemic - Pandemic Hx 1 - tgh > .
Life After the Black Death Ended - Weird > .
The Most Destructive Pandemics and Epidemics In Human History > .
Pandemics & the Economy | The Lasting Effects of the Black Death > .
How did Medieval People respond to the Black Death? - same > .
Black Death Explained in 8 Minutes - CaHi > .
The Most Destructive Pandemics and Epidemics In Human History > .
Pandemics & the Economy | The Lasting Effects of the Black Death > .
How did Medieval People respond to the Black Death? - same > .
Black Death Explained in 8 Minutes - CaHi > .
History of the Black Death - 1 - fph > .
History of the Black Death - 2 - fph > .
History of the Black Death - 3 - fph > .
Did The Black Death Affect Medieval Religion? Islam / Christianity ~ same > .
The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 CE, also known as the Plague of Galen (from the name of the Greek physician living in the Roman Empire who described it), was an ancient pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. Scholars have suspected it to have been either smallpox or measles, but the true cause remains undetermined.
History of the Black Death - 2 - fph > .
History of the Black Death - 3 - fph > .
Did The Black Death Affect Medieval Religion? Islam / Christianity ~ same > .
The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 CE, also known as the Plague of Galen (from the name of the Greek physician living in the Roman Empire who described it), was an ancient pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. Scholars have suspected it to have been either smallpox or measles, but the true cause remains undetermined.
Antonine Plague - 165 to 180 CE .
Justinian Plague: First Pandemic? // Procopius (541-542) - VoP > .
Pandemics Economically Worse than War - 1st Pandemic - Pandemic Hx 1 - tgh > .
The Plague of Justinian (541–542 CE, with recurrences until 750) was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and especially its capital, Constantinople, as well as the Sasanian Empire and port cities around the entire Mediterranean Sea.
In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian was Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium responsible for the Black Death (1347–1351). ... Ancient and modern Yersinia pestis strains closely related to the ancestor of the Justinian plague strain have been found in Tian Shan, a system of mountain ranges on the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China, suggesting that the Justinian plague may have originated in or near that region.
The plague returned periodically until the eighth century. The waves of disease had a major effect on the subsequent course of European history.
Justinian Plague - 541 CE - - 750 CE .
Pandemics and the Shape of Human History: Outbreaks have sparked riots and propelled public-health innovations, prefigured revolutions and redrawn maps.
"In early 542, the plague struck Constantinople. The plague hit the powerless and the powerful alike. Justinian himself contracted it. Among the lucky, he survived. His rule, however, never really recovered. In the years leading up to 542, Justinian’s generals had reconquered much of the western part of the Roman Empire from the Goths, the Vandals, and other assorted barbarians. After 542, the Emperor struggled to recruit soldiers and to pay them. The territories that his generals had subdued began to revolt. The plague reached the city of Rome in 543, and seems to have made it all the way to Britain by 544. It broke out again in Constantinople in 558, a third time in 573, and yet again in 586.
Pandemics Economically Worse than War - 1st Pandemic - Pandemic Hx 1 - tgh > .
The Plague of Justinian (541–542 CE, with recurrences until 750) was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and especially its capital, Constantinople, as well as the Sasanian Empire and port cities around the entire Mediterranean Sea.
In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian was Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium responsible for the Black Death (1347–1351). ... Ancient and modern Yersinia pestis strains closely related to the ancestor of the Justinian plague strain have been found in Tian Shan, a system of mountain ranges on the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China, suggesting that the Justinian plague may have originated in or near that region.
The plague returned periodically until the eighth century. The waves of disease had a major effect on the subsequent course of European history.
Justinian Plague - 541 CE - - 750 CE .
Pandemics and the Shape of Human History: Outbreaks have sparked riots and propelled public-health innovations, prefigured revolutions and redrawn maps.
"In early 542, the plague struck Constantinople. The plague hit the powerless and the powerful alike. Justinian himself contracted it. Among the lucky, he survived. His rule, however, never really recovered. In the years leading up to 542, Justinian’s generals had reconquered much of the western part of the Roman Empire from the Goths, the Vandals, and other assorted barbarians. After 542, the Emperor struggled to recruit soldiers and to pay them. The territories that his generals had subdued began to revolt. The plague reached the city of Rome in 543, and seems to have made it all the way to Britain by 544. It broke out again in Constantinople in 558, a third time in 573, and yet again in 586.
The Justinianic plague, as it became known, didn’t burn itself out until 750. By that point, there was a new world order. A powerful new religion, Islam, had arisen, and its followers ruled territory that included a great deal of what had been Justinian’s empire, along with the Arabian Peninsula. Much of Western Europe, meanwhile, had come under the control of the Franks. Rome had been reduced to about thirty thousand people, roughly the population of present-day Mamaroneck. Was the pestilence partly responsible? If so, history is written not only by men but also by microbes."
...
The word “quarantine” comes from the Italian quaranta, meaning “forty.” The earliest formal quarantines were a response to the Black Death, which, between 1347 and 1351, killed something like a third of Europe and ushered in what’s become known as the “second plague pandemic.” As with the first, the second pandemic worked its havoc fitfully. Plague would spread, then abate, only to flare up again.
During one such flareup, in the fifteenth century, the Venetians erected lazarettos—or isolation wards—on outlying islands, where they forced arriving ships to dock. The Venetians believed that by airing out the ships they were dissipating plague-causing vapors. If the theory was off base, the results were still salubrious; forty days gave the plague time enough to kill infected rats and sailors. Snowden, a professor emeritus at Yale, calls such measures one of the first forms of “institutionalized public health” and argues that they helped legitimatize the “accretion of power” by the modern state.
...
The word “quarantine” comes from the Italian quaranta, meaning “forty.” The earliest formal quarantines were a response to the Black Death, which, between 1347 and 1351, killed something like a third of Europe and ushered in what’s become known as the “second plague pandemic.” As with the first, the second pandemic worked its havoc fitfully. Plague would spread, then abate, only to flare up again.
During one such flareup, in the fifteenth century, the Venetians erected lazarettos—or isolation wards—on outlying islands, where they forced arriving ships to dock. The Venetians believed that by airing out the ships they were dissipating plague-causing vapors. If the theory was off base, the results were still salubrious; forty days gave the plague time enough to kill infected rats and sailors. Snowden, a professor emeritus at Yale, calls such measures one of the first forms of “institutionalized public health” and argues that they helped legitimatize the “accretion of power” by the modern state.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/pandemics-and-the-shape-of-human-history .
Plague writers who "predicted" coronavirus pandemic .
Pandemic and 1918: How History and Illness Intertwine - tHG > .
History of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic - tHG > .
Ж Black Death to Peasants' Revolt ..
Ж Black Death - Impacts ..Plague writers who "predicted" coronavirus pandemic .
Pandemic and 1918: How History and Illness Intertwine - tHG > .
History of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic - tHG > .
Ж Black Death to Peasants' Revolt ..
ЖЉ Black Death - Jewish Persecution, Europe ..
Cooling - Medieval famine, plague, social change ..
Crises ..
Economic & Societal Consequences of Black Death ..
Great Pestilence ..
History of Pandemics ..
Plague ..
Quarantine ..
Waterproofing
History of Waterproofing of buildings: Residents of ancient Mesopotamia coated adobe buildings with layers of bitumen. The Egyptians used natural resins and fats to seal ships and buildings. Ancient Romans used opus signinum, a mixture of lime, sand and crushed pottery, to waterproof their impressive aqueducts, cisterns and thermal baths.
During the Middle Ages, construction of great cathedrals and castles made waterproofing essential. Medieval builders developed a number of ingenious techniques to repel water. Here are some of the most common techniques of that era:
- Gable roofs shed rainwater quickly, preventing accumulation and possible seepage.
- Terracotta tiles: Their shape and layout diverted water to the edges, channeling water away from the structure.
- Dense masonry of stone or brick minimised cracks, reducing leaks.
- Lime and mortar was used to bind stones and bricks together. Lime provided strong structural bonds and acted as a water repellent.
- Oil and resin treatment of wooden structures, such as roof beams or doors, rendered them water resistant.
- Gutters and drainpipes: Although rudimentary, gutters and drainpipes directed water away from building foundations.
- Lead coatings: Expensive buildings, such as cathedrals, boasted lead roofing and lead protection of surfaces exposed to water. The material was particularly effective in preventing leaks.
- Raised foundations helped to prevent damp from rising from the ground.
- Drainage systems: Drainage systems were built to prevent accumulation of water.
Papyrus
Some Of The Last Papyrus Makers In Egypt - 5,000-Year-Old Craft - BuIn > .
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.
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.
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.
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.
● First Millennium
1000 CE Europe ..
Brunanburh 937 CE ..
Inventions, discoveries and introductions 1-1000 CE .
Timeline - medieval technology ..
7th
Tidal mills
8th
The horse collar first appears in Europe.
The heavy plow is in use in Northern Italy (the Po valley) by the 8th century.
The heavy plow is in use in the Rhineland in the early 8th century.
The stirrup arrives in Europe from China in the early 8th century.
The use of soap, a Gaulish invention, spreads through Europe.
Iron becomes common in western Europe.
Paper is introduced into the Arab world.
9th
The first description of a rotary grindstone occurs in 834.
10th
The use of hops in brewing beer spread between the 10th Century and the 14th.
The first millennium of the Common Era was a millennium spanning the years 1 to 1000 (1st to 10th centuries). World population rose more slowly than during the preceding millennium, from about 200 million in the year 1 to about 300 million in the year 1000.
In Western Eurasia (Europe and Near East), the first millennium was a time of great transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The 1st century saw the peak of the Roman Empire, followed by its gradual decline during the period of Late Antiquity, the rise of Christianity and the Great Migrations. The second half of the millennium is characterized as the Early Middle Ages in Europe, and marked by the Viking expansion in the west, the rise of the Byzantine Empire in the east.
Islam expanded rapidly from Arabia to western Asia, India, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula, culminating in the Islamic Golden Age (700–1200).
In East Asia, the first millennium was also a time of great cultural advances, notably the spread of Buddhism to East Asia. In China, the Han dynasty is replaced by the Jin dynasty and later the Tang dynasty until the 10th century sees renewed fragmentation in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In Japan, a sharp increase in population followed when farmers' use of iron tools increased their productivity and crop yields. The Yamato court was established.
In South Asia, the Indian subcontinent was divided among numerous kingdoms throughout the first millennium, until the formation of the Gupta Empire.
In Mesoamerica, the first millennium was a period of enormous growth known as the Classic Era (200–900). Teotihuacan grew into a metropolis and its empire dominated Mesoamerica. In South America, pre-Incan, coastal cultures flourished, producing impressive metalwork and some of the finest pottery seen in the ancient world. In North America, the Mississippian culture rose at the end of the millennium in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Numerous cities were built; Cahokia, the largest, was based in present-day Illinois. The construction of Monks Mound at Cahokia was begun in 900–950.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Bantu expansion reaches Southern Africa by about the 5th century. The Arab slave trade spans the Sahara and the Swahili coast by the 9th century.
Plagues & Pandemics ..
Brunanburh 937 CE ..
Inventions, discoveries and introductions 1-1000 CE .
| Communication | Agriculture | Math and Science | Transportation | Warfare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woodblock printing . Paper . | Coffee . Hops . | Algebra . Ptolemaic system . Steel . | Horseshoe . Stirrup . Magnetic compass . | Greek fire . Gunpowder . |
Timeline - medieval technology ..
7th
Tidal mills
8th
The horse collar first appears in Europe.
The heavy plow is in use in Northern Italy (the Po valley) by the 8th century.
The heavy plow is in use in the Rhineland in the early 8th century.
The stirrup arrives in Europe from China in the early 8th century.
The use of soap, a Gaulish invention, spreads through Europe.
Iron becomes common in western Europe.
Paper is introduced into the Arab world.
9th
The first description of a rotary grindstone occurs in 834.
10th
The use of hops in brewing beer spread between the 10th Century and the 14th.
The first millennium of the Common Era was a millennium spanning the years 1 to 1000 (1st to 10th centuries). World population rose more slowly than during the preceding millennium, from about 200 million in the year 1 to about 300 million in the year 1000.
In Western Eurasia (Europe and Near East), the first millennium was a time of great transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The 1st century saw the peak of the Roman Empire, followed by its gradual decline during the period of Late Antiquity, the rise of Christianity and the Great Migrations. The second half of the millennium is characterized as the Early Middle Ages in Europe, and marked by the Viking expansion in the west, the rise of the Byzantine Empire in the east.
Islam expanded rapidly from Arabia to western Asia, India, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula, culminating in the Islamic Golden Age (700–1200).
In East Asia, the first millennium was also a time of great cultural advances, notably the spread of Buddhism to East Asia. In China, the Han dynasty is replaced by the Jin dynasty and later the Tang dynasty until the 10th century sees renewed fragmentation in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In Japan, a sharp increase in population followed when farmers' use of iron tools increased their productivity and crop yields. The Yamato court was established.
In South Asia, the Indian subcontinent was divided among numerous kingdoms throughout the first millennium, until the formation of the Gupta Empire.
In Mesoamerica, the first millennium was a period of enormous growth known as the Classic Era (200–900). Teotihuacan grew into a metropolis and its empire dominated Mesoamerica. In South America, pre-Incan, coastal cultures flourished, producing impressive metalwork and some of the finest pottery seen in the ancient world. In North America, the Mississippian culture rose at the end of the millennium in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Numerous cities were built; Cahokia, the largest, was based in present-day Illinois. The construction of Monks Mound at Cahokia was begun in 900–950.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Bantu expansion reaches Southern Africa by about the 5th century. The Arab slave trade spans the Sahara and the Swahili coast by the 9th century.
Plagues & Pandemics ..
➧ Ancients ➧
▲ Abrahamic ➧
▲ Ancient Greeks ➧
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Early ➧
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Danes to Normans ➧
▲ Archaeology ➧
▲ Britons ➧
▲ Bronze Age ➧
▲ Celts ➧
▲ Christianity ➧
▲ DNA, migrations, population ➧
▲ Early Anglo-Saxons ➧
▲ Experimental Archaeology; Skills ➧
▲ Food & Technology ➧
▲ Invaders, Conquerors ➧
▲ Iron Age ➧
▲ Islam ➧
▲ Language ➧
▲ Mapping of History ➧
▲ Palaeo-anthropology ➧
▲ Picts ➧
▲ Romans ➧
▲ Stone Ages ➧
▲ Vikings ➧
▲ Warfare ➧
▲ Weaponry ➧
▲ Ancient Greeks ➧
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Early ➧
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Danes to Normans ➧
▲ Archaeology ➧
▲ Britons ➧
▲ Bronze Age ➧
▲ Celts ➧
▲ Christianity ➧
▲ DNA, migrations, population ➧
▲ Early Anglo-Saxons ➧
▲ Experimental Archaeology; Skills ➧
▲ Food & Technology ➧
▲ Invaders, Conquerors ➧
▲ Iron Age ➧
▲ Islam ➧
▲ Language ➧
▲ Mapping of History ➧
▲ Palaeo-anthropology ➧
▲ Picts ➧
▲ Romans ➧
▲ Stone Ages ➧
▲ Vikings ➧
▲ Warfare ➧
▲ Weaponry ➧
● Ancients ➧
➧ Ancients ➧
▲ Abrahamic ..
▲ Africa, Ancient Near East ..
▲ Africa, Ancient Near East ..
▲ Ancient Greeks ..
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Early ..
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Danes to Normans ..
▲ Archaeology ..
▲ Asia ..
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Early ..
▲ Anglo-Saxons - Danes to Normans ..
▲ Archaeology ..
▲ Asia ..
▲ Britain ..
▲ Britons ..
▲ Bronze Age ..
▲ Celts ..
▲ Christianity ..
▲ DNA, migrations, population ..
▲ Early Anglo-Saxons ..
▲ Eurasia ..
▲ Britons ..
▲ Bronze Age ..
▲ Celts ..
▲ Christianity ..
▲ DNA, migrations, population ..
▲ Early Anglo-Saxons ..
▲ Eurasia ..
▲ Europe ..
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