No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
The earliest known blank papyrus roll was found in the tomb of Hemaka, from Egypt’s First Dynasty. The tomb is dated by dynasty, not to a precise year.
About credit
The technique developed over time within Egyptian workshops. No inventor is recorded.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before Papyrus
Writing lived on clay tablets and carved stone. Both are heavy, and a long text meant carrying or storing many tablets.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Egyptian craftspeople cut the pith of the papyrus plant into thin strips, laid one layer vertically and another across it, then pressed and dried them so the plant’s own sap bound the layers. Sheets were glued edge to edge into rolls that could be many metres long.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
Papyrus, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Layered strips
Two crossed layers of pith make a sheet that resists tearing along the grain, a principle also used in plywood.
Layered strips
A roll, not a page
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Administration
Records, letters and tax accounts could be written and carried over long distances.
Libraries
Large collections of rolls, such as the one in Alexandria, became practical.
It was lighter and cheaper than stone or clay and could hold long texts. For millennia, books around the Mediterranean were papyrus rolls.
V
Before and after
Life before and after Papyrus
Before
A cart of clay tablets.
After
A single light roll.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
