Trade in papyrus and the vast collection of papyrus documents in Alexandria made this city the educational center of the world. Ripley (1863) states that papyrus paper was manufactured on a large scale in Alexandria during several centuries of the Christian era and it was an important item of commerce. The greatest quantity of paper was made in Alexandria which made the province immensely rich due to commerce in the article. Following this conquest, great amounts of papyrus were made throughout Egypt for exportation purposes. The use of papyrus paper outside of Egypt became more general following the conquering of Egypt by Alexander the Great. The sheets were made into the desired lengths and then rolled onto wooden rollers. On drying, the sheets were joined together. The arrangement was then subjected to pressure and the sheets which resulted from these were dried in the sun (Shepherd, 2008). Layers of the papyrus were spread over the length of the table and it was overlaid by another layer placed transversely. These plates were placed on a table and kept moist using water from the Nile. The size of the plates was dictated by the individual plant. The method of preparing paper from papyrus began by dividing the stem, by using a needle, into thin plates. The reign of the papyrus lasted from 3000BC to about 1000AD (Winckler, 1983). The availability of papyrus as a suitable writing material greatly contributed to the advancement of writing. In addition to this, the material was easy to carry therefore making it ideal for sending messages over a distance. What made papyrus an appealing material was that it was light, strong, and of a durable nature. All this changed when the Egyptians invented papyrus paper. Traditionally, papyrus was used for a multitude of purposes which included decorations, fuel, making boats and even as building materials. Papyrus is referred to as the “most ancient kind of paper” and it was first used by the Egyptians (Shepherd, 2008, p.1). The paper will also trace out how the advancement of papyrus evolved over time and the effects of the evolution on later time periods. This paper will set out to discuss the invention of papyrus and how it affected the arts within the time period it was invented. The invention of papyrus led to the increase in written works since this material was more suitable that the previously used products. These materials had a number of disadvantages most notably of which were lack of flexibility and bulkiness which made them less portable. The invention of papyrus paper by the Egyptians changed the scene since papyrus-paper proved to be the ideal writing material of the time.īefore the use of papyrus, painting and writing was mostly done on stone, clay, back leaves and potsherd. Even so, proper writing material was unavailable and as such, writing was greatly restricted. The ability to write and keep records was arguably one of the greatest achievements of ancient human civilization.
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