Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Plant

Papyrus was an important plant with many uses.

Papyrus is a North African plant that had a variety of uses in ancient Egypt. It was once so important that it was used as the hieroglyphic symbol for Lower Egypt.

Features

Papyrus is a sedge with a triangular, graceful stem that can grow up to 10 feet tall. It has short leaves that wrap around the lower part of the stem and is topped by fluffy clusters of wiry spikes. They grow in large clusters in wet soil and shallow water.

Uses

The ancient Egyptians used papyrus for food and fuel. It was also used as a raw material for sandals, cloth, boats, twine and an early writing material also called papyrus. Papyrus was used as a writing material in Egypt until the development of paper in the 8th century.

Papyrus Manuscripts

Writing material was one of the main uses of papyrus.

Egyptian craftsmen created sheets of papyrus by laying strips of the plant side by side in two layers and pressing them together with an adhesive made from the plant's juices and Nile water. Sheets of papyrus were glued end to end and rolled onto to rods to form scrolls. By the 2nd century CE, scrolls were replaced with books with pages called codices.

References

• "The Columbia Encyclopedia"; Papyrus; 2008
• "A Dictionary of the Bible"; Papyrus; W.R.F. Browning; 1997
• Floridata: Cyperus Papyrus