Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Egyptian Payrus


Paper is used for paintings and writing. It was invented in around 3000 B.C and the word 'paper' comes from the Egyptian word "Papyrus".


Plant

blank papyrus


Papyrus plant 

Grows wild in muddy area around the Nile
grown on farms



The papyrus was durable in the warm and dry climate of Egypt, but when it's stored in a humid space the material is destroyed.

Papyrus Process 

  • Harvest  - the branch of the plant is collected
  • Striping - firstly, strip off the skin and the sticky rubbery from inside, is cut into small strips.
  • Pressing - then strips were laid in two sections (horizontal and vertical), and dried under pressure to form smooth thin layers.
  • Rolls - at the end, sheets were combined together with the fibers running in the same way, creating long rolls which extended up to 10 meters in length.



The same manufacturing techniques were used for 4,000 years. 


Old Egyptian Papyrus


There are around 400,000 papyri reserved around the world and the vast majority of them are incomplete and disconnected.

The task of papyrologists is to translate, copy and reconstruct what us lost between fragments.

Ayman Fadl. 2014. Egyptian Papyrus. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.aldokkan.com/art/papyrus.htm . [Accessed 21 May 14].











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