The papyrus or papyrus It is the writing surface manufactured by the ancient Egyptians by the stem of these aquatic plants that grew on the banks of the Nile. This card has a very long story: it all began in Egypt, where it was manufactured for the first time Around the III millennium BCas a basis to draw up official and religious documents, a production that went on until the mid -11th century. The plant of Cyperus Papyrustypical of river and swampy environments, it was in fact used in antiquity for various uses: sails for boats, bandages, clothing, baskets, ropes, sandals, boats, such as food (even if only some parts of the plant were chewed, without eating fiber), and, above all, for the production of sheets on which to write. Unfortunately No Egyptian source speaks of the methods used for the production of this card: the more detailed report (even if not clear in all details) is the one reported by Pliny the old man his Naturalis Historia. The first studies to shed light on the ancient manufacturing techniques began in 1572 with Melchiorre Guilandino, while the first attempts to manufacture the papure material date back to 1750, in Syracuse. Only the modern scientific methodological approach and experimental archeology has actually permit to re -propose (with a discreet margin of certainty) the whole procedure.
The procedure for the creation of a sheet of papyrus
- Once the papyrus has reached the age of maturation, once every three years, yes cut the median portion of the stem (or Culture) of the plants, which has a triangular section and can touch 4/5 meters high;
- The cult is freed from green zest and external woody, the internal pulp It is cut into thin stripes;
- After the pretreatment in a liquid (which in some versions is added with particular solutions, in others it is simply water), the stripes are placed on a linen clothoverlapping them of a few millimeters in order to form a continuous layer;
- A second layer It is arranged in a perpendicular sense to the first;
- The sheet that has thus come to create is subjected to pressure through the use of a press or a roller (he is left here up to a whole day);
- When it is completely dryThe papyrus sheet is ready.
The Egyptian Museum of Turin He reconstructed the ancient processing procedure, revealing the secrets step by step in the video that you find below.
