Papyrus :: essays research papers

"PapyrusPapyrus was the most outstanding writing strong in the ancientworld. Our word ""paper"" derives from the word ""papyrus,"" an Egyptian word that originally meant ""that which belongs to the ho employ"" (the bureaucracy of ancient Egypt). Papyrus is a triangular reed that used to grow along the banks of the Nile, and at an early(a) stage of their history the Egyptians developed a kind of writing visible made out of the pith within the stem of the papyrus plant. At the same time they developed a script that ultimately provided the clay sculpture for the two most common alphabets in the world, the Roman and the Arabic. . The taskof the papyrologist is not only to decipher, transcribe and edit what is bear on, but also to reconstruct what is scattered betweenfragments and reconstruct the whole. Most fragments of literature derive from rolls of papyrus, which could extend upto 35 feet in length. Papyrus was the most impo rtant writing material of the ancient world and perhaps ancient Egypts most important bequest alongside it were used other (often cheaper) materials, like wood and clay (broken clayw atomic number 18 sherdswith writing atomic number 18 called ostraca). On these materials were recorded everything from high literature to the innumerable of Nine of ten published texts are private letters or documents of every conceivable documents and other communicationsof daily life. they reflect the quotidian affairs of government, commerce, and personal life in much the same counseling that modern records do. From the papyri, moreover, have comeabundant new works of phantasmal literature not only for Judaism and Christianity but also for traditional Grecian and Roman cults, for Manicheism, and for the early history of Islam. The papyri are also our most important source for the actual working of law in ancient societies. . In addition to the papyri, the Michigan collection contains other wr iting surfaces that were in use in the ancient world, such as ostraca (pot shards), lead, wax and wooden tablets, parchment, and rarely, paper. The papyri are mainly in Greek, but with a rangesimilar to that of Michigan.Condition of the Materials moreover itis of course much older than most paper manuscripts, and most papyri are torn on several, if not all, sides. They usually emerge dirty, crumpled, and twisted, unlessthey have been preserved in a box or jar (as occasionally happens). Ostraca are often broken, and sometimes havesignificant salt in the fabric if they have lain in land reached