Concept in Definition ABC

The Papyrology is a discipline auxiliary of the Story that deals exclusively with the study of papyri.

Discipline that studies papyri, the writing medium originated and used by the ancient Egyptians

Meanwhile, the papyrus is the name by which the writing support that is made precisely from a homonymous aquatic plant and that is very common in the Nile River, in Egypt and in some other places in the basin mediterranean.

Background of the paper, characteristics of the plant and history

The papyrus comes from a sedge plant that can be between 2 and 3 meters high, with a stem in the cane topped by a plume of flowers and long leaves that knows how to grow near rivers and lakes.
For its growth and survival it needs a huge amount of water and for that matter, maintaining its growth would be expensive.

For example, papyrus is also called this popular plant and the sheet that is obtained from it and that has been used in ancient times to write or draw on it.
The ancient Egyptians were pioneers in its use.

Papyrus was the quintessential support for manuscripts in antiquity and would be the antecedent of modern paper.

Five thousand years of history are behind the papyrus, being as we said, the ancient Egyptians its great users. When it came to transmitting through signs and drawings, such was his way of expressing himself, both his traditions like your story.

Solidity and consistency that have allowed documents made on papyrus to survive until today

Among the great advantages of papyri, its solidity and consistency stand out, which allow that the passage of time does not deteriorate this material, and so today it is possible to find some of these documents, which of course have an incalculable value, due to the history they have behind.

The colors of the papyri that have been recovered and that have reached these times remain fresh and that is the perfect example of the qualities that we mentioned.
The Egyptians were the ones who discovered and used it in a pioneering way but so have other western civilizations until the role was imposed.
It was widely used at the request of notarial and diplomatic documents
One of the most popular and well-known expressions of papyrus is the Book of the Dead which is preserved and exhibited in the British Museum in London.
The Egyptian was an advanced culture in every aspect and level, in its constructions, especially the Pyramids that they erected and that today we admire so much despite the evolution that existed since this civilization was installed, in the development of medicine, and of course it could not be less in what to expression It refers to and fundamental proof of this is precisely the papyrus, a plant to which they knew how to give a special and famous use.
The papyrus trade was a monopoly of power and was managed by it for years
Formerly, the manufacture of papyrus was a monopoly of power, that is, of the king, and as we mentioned earlier it was really highly appreciated for the usefulness it represented especially among the peoples of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. It was exported for many years and even centuries, in Format of rolls.

Until about the time of Alexander the Great (King of Macedon) the use of papyrus was not recurrent, much less universal, but from this moment on it was promoted spectacularly and its loss of importance went hand in hand with the decline that Egyptian culture would suffer opportunely.

Immediately afterwards it was replaced by the parchment, material made from the carcass of an animal. In the eleventh century, the papyrus, was already a memory absolutely, anyway, the proliferation that we mentioned achieved at the time that today manuscripts written on papyrus can be found in the largest libraries of Europe.

As elaborated?

The process of elaboration It consisted of keeping the stem of the papyrus plant soaked for between one and two weeks, then it was cut into very fine sheets and pressed with a roller to de In this way, remove part of the sap and other liquid substances, after that, the sheets were placed horizontally and vertically and were again pressed so that in In this case, the sap acted as an adhesive and the final touch was given with a piece of ivory for several days and then it was ready to be used as a support for writing.

The writing was carried out only on the face that had the horizontal strips arranged, on the other side, the reverse, it was hardly written. Meanwhile, being such an expensive product, what was done many times when what was written on it was not of interest, was to erase it in order to reuse it.

So, the Papirology, deals with the literature, correspondence, legal files and any other type of ancient document that is written on a papyrus. But it is not limited only to this but also includes the translation and interpretation of the aforementioned writings and their preservation for ever and ever.

The systematization As a formal discipline it dates back to the end of the 19th century, when a huge number of papyri were discovered in Egypt. The most important centers of the discipline are in the Oxford, Heidelberg and Columbia Universities.

Topics in Papirology