|
What Did People Use Before Paper?
Before "true" paper was invented in China (around 105 CE), people had been using all kinds of materials as writing surfaces. Many of these materials are still thought of as paper, but really aren't. Here's a list of some of paper's predecessors:
| Stone |
Egyptians chiseled hieroglyphics into tall stone monuments called obelisks. |
| Bricks |
Babylonians incised letters into soft clay and then baked the tablets and passed them from person to person. |
| Metals |
Romans stamped letters into brass, copper, bronze and lead sheets. |
| Wood |
Slabs of wood were covered with a coating of wax, plaster or chalk and scratched on with a metal or bone stylus. |
| Vegetation |
Writing on palm and other leaves was practised from the earliest periods in Rome and Near Eastern countries. |
| Bark |
This has been used as a writing material in almost every period and region; for example, North American Native tribes wrote symbols in liquid paint on the bark of the white birch. |
| Parchment |
Developed in the ancient city of Pergamum (from which the name derives), parchment is a sheet-like material made from sheep's skin. The animal's skin is split into two layers: the grain or wool side is used for leather and the inner layer is used as parchment.
The skin is washed, rubbed with lime to remove hair, washed again, stretched on a frame, scraped to obtain a uniform thickness, dusted with powdered chalk and finally rubbed with pumice. This technique has not changed since ancient times. A single copy of Gutenberg's Bible took over 300 sheep skins to produce.
|
| Vellum |
Vellum is made from the entire skin of a calf, goat or lamb, but the hide is not split into two layers like parchment. Vellum is prepared in the same way as parchment, but tends to have obvious hair marks, grain, and a more irregular surface. |
| Papyrus |
The word paper derives from papyrus, an aquatic plant found in many parts of Africa. Papyrus (the writing material) is made by slicing the long stalks of the plant vertically with a sharp knife or stone, layering the strips in a crosswise pattern and beating them until they bind and form a sheet. The Egyptian papyrus industry flourished from the 5th to the 3rd century BCE. |
|
