Papyrus | Can’t Sleep? Learn About Ancient Paper

The first modern discovery of papyrus rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752, buried and charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. When scholars realized what lay beneath the ash, "ripples of expectation spread among the learned men of the time." But unrolling and deciphering those blackened scrolls is still going on today. That single image—a library of ancient texts we can barely touch—captures the strange, fragile history of the material that carried writing for three thousand years.

What Papyrus Was and How It Was Made

Papyrus is not paper, though it is paper's etymological ancestor. It is a writing material made from the stem of the wetland sedge Cyperus papyrus, which once grew abundantly across the Nile Delta. The manufacturing process was straightforward but labor-intensive. The outer rind was removed, and the sticky inner pith was cut lengthwise into thin strips about forty centimeters long. Those strips were laid side by side on a hard surface with edges slightly overlapping, then a second layer was placed on top at right angles. The two layers were hammered together while still moist, mashing them into a single sheet. After drying under pressure, the sheet was polished with a rounded object—possibly a stone, seashell, or piece of round hardwood. Multiple sheets could be glued together to form a long roll, with a wooden stick attached to the last sheet for easi