Which material is first known to have been used as a writing surface in ancient Egypt?

Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. Papyrus (plural: papyri) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.

Papyrus is first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as the First Dynasty), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region and in the Kingdom of Kush. Apart from a writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts, such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets.

Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE. The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. These documents, the Diary of Merer, date from c. 2560–2550 BCE (end of the reign of Khufu). The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza. In the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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13 Comments

Maurice Carlier

Hieroglyphics and papyrus were used in ancient Eqypt, Clay tablets and cuneiform writing developed on Mesopotamia What part of the Q&A did folks not understand? A much better question from DW 🙂

Gerard Stack

There’s too much complaining about the question. The wording could have been improved but the question asked was, which, from the list of four materials, was first used for writing in Egypt. To my knowledge papyrus was not used as a writing surface anywhere earlier than in Egypt. For the person who suggested cuneiform, this was first used in Mesopotamia, not Egypt.

docluci

I talked about my daughter’s teenage crush earlier tonight. Well, in my teen years, my interests were not boys, but cross cultural. I read all about Egypt, India, Israel from ancient times to more modern times. I had a particular interest in their religions, too. I continued these studies in earnest in my first two years of college at Radcliffe (Harvard). As a result I know about early Egyptian writing, including their “paper”!!!!!

pamela h

Cheryl Perkins, It WAS confusing

Peter Robertson

Yes,clay and stone were used to mark on, very early,but I have scanned the question several times and I'm hanged if I can find them mentioned in the question??? I thought the question was about the early use in Egypt of a writing surface,which one of those listed? Correct me if I'm wrong!