papyrus

Papyrus was writing material used from antiquity. It is the substance of which most ancient documents were written. Papyrus is composed of strips of the pith of a certain bulrush that grew on the banks of the Nile, the papyrus reed is only found in Egypt and a small district in Sicily. The stalks are pliable, and capable of being interwoven very closely, as is evident from their being used in the construction of arks, and also vessels of larger dimensions. Boats of this material were very common in Egypt.

The papyrus was cut into thin strips which were then laid side by side and a second layer of strips was placed on top and at right angles to the first. When soaked in water, hammered, dried in the sun, and finally polished, a tough smooth sheet was obtained to form a substance very like brown paper. In libraries papyri was rolled and packed in jars, labelled, and ranged on shelves. A roll is an unwieldy thing and the length which was conveniently handled was strictly limited. The longest rolls were some 35 feet and about the length of the book of Acts.

The scribes used reed pens dipped in ink made of carbon soot and gum. The ink used had no acid in it. It did not bite into the papyrus as modern ink does. To erase, one simply wiped with a damp sponge. So God wipes out the sin of the forgiven man.

Papyrus was not very durable. It became brittle with age, or rotted with dampness and soon wore out except in Egypt because of the dry climate. Early in the 2nd century sheets of papyrus began to be bound into books or 'codices'. When parchment was invented it was found too costly to be generally used so long as papyrus could be obtained.
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