5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians began to record their ideas, findings and events of their daily lives in manuscript form, on PAPYRUS.

The most ancient writing material, the papyrus, was manufactured using an aquatic plant long-cultivated in the delta of the river Nile. This graceful plant, CYPERUS PAPYRUS (family Ciperaceae) grows up to 15 feet high. Its green, triangular stem bears long, sharp leaves, and radiating flower clusters, 10 to 20 inches long, which bloom at the tip.

The ancient Egyptians used the stem of the papyrus plant for many purposes, such as making of cords, mats, sails, cloth, and most of all the parchment-like paper, PAPYRUS. This writing material was adopted by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was used for the making of books, in scroll or roll form, and also for the legal documentation and correspondence.

The Roman writer, Pliny the Elder, left a detailed account of the manufacture of papyrus. The outside, fibrous layer of the stem is removed, leaving the inner portion, the white pith, which is sliced longitudinally into strips. The strips are placed side by side, in an alternating horizontal and vertical pattern, on a flat stone, then soaked in water and pressed under a heavy stone for 21 days. The juice of the plant acts as an adhesive that bonds the strips together forming a sheet, which is finally hammered, and dried in the sun.

PAPYROLOGY - is the science of reading, interpretation, and care of the ancient documents written on papyrus. The oldest papyri date from about 3,000 B.C. Some of the most important ancient Egyptian Papyri discovered are: The Rhind (mathematical) papyrus, the Edwin Smith (surgical) Papyrus, and the Turin papyrus. Numerous literary compositions dating from the Hellenistic and Roman times, written on papyrus, in Egyptian demotic script, Greek, or Latin have been collected in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They have become invaluable sources of information on the ancient Mediterranean world, and an important aid to the study of ancient religions, and classical literature. One of the most interesting findings was a manuscript of The Constitution of Athens by Aristotle, discovered by an American missionary in Egypt, in 1891. In the late 1940s, new biblical manuscripts, on papyrus scrolls, were discovered in the Dead Sea area, which became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.