How did you store the papyri? There's an answer

How did you store the papyri in Ancient Egypt? After all, even then the scrolls became one of the most important means of transmitting information from generation to generation. The Egyptians had very advanced technical capabilities for their time, astronomical and medical knowledge. Obviously, recording and efficient transmission of information were an important matter for them. But how did you store the papyri in this case? Let's try to understand.

How did you store the papyri? The short answer lies in the technology itself

The papyrus, which was widely used by scribes in ancient Egypt, was actually streaked from the stem of a strip. Actually, the very name of this paper is derived from the name of the plant papyrus, which in abundance grew in the swamps of northern Africa, and the stems of which were used by the ancients to make writing material. His knowledge of the technology of making this "paper" modern scholars historians are not in the least indebted to just one of the ancient Egyptian scribes, Theophrastus, who left similar records. The strips of papyrus were cut off from the stem, after which they passed the process of careful alignment and superimposed on each other. The edges were fastened with glue. Of course, the strips were seriously sorted by quality. After all, the life span of the subsequent scrolls depended on this. After that, an additional strip was placed on top, which was also fixed with glue. When a sheet of papyrus was Ready, it was placed under the press, from where it came out already dry and usable.

How to store papyri before use

Prepared in this way a sheet of ancient Egyptian paper could be of a very different length. They were usually kept in the form of scrolls. For lengthening, it was necessary to add a new strip only at any of its ends. The most impressive similar scroll of papyrus, which has survived to this day, has a length of more than forty meters. The color of such paper at different times was then light brown, then dark. With the passage of centuries, the technology changed somewhat, and the papyrus became more and more light: creamy, and later almost white.

How to store the papyri

Scrolls were neatly rewound with laces made of linen or from the same papyrus. Nods of laces were sometimes fixed with clay seal. Important scrolls for the state, as a rule, were placed in special wooden boxes. For example, the most famous papyri, which have survived to our days - Papyrus Well and Papyrus Harris - were found by archaeologists in such boxes. Their casings were Clay seals, on which were depicted scarabs. More papyrus: all kinds of documents, letters and other - ancient Egyptians kept, as a rule, in clay pots.

Papyrus in Europe

We know it as the main means of recording for the ancient Egyptians and associate the papyrus with them, above all. However, ancient civilization has learned a lot from the Egyptians. So, in ancient Greece and Rome, papyrus was actively used throughout their existence, until the fall of the Roman Empire.