Papyrus

Papyrus, from which the modern word paper comes, is a writing material made from the papyrus plant, a reed that grows in the swampy areas around the Nile River. Papyrus was used as a writing material as early as 3000 BC in ancient Egypt and was used to some extent until 1100 AD. 

Papyrus is a writing material used to record texts. Because of its quality, lightness, and consistency, it soon supplanted other writing materials, although it never completely replaced them. The basic raw material for production was the stalks of the papyrus plant, which grew and was harvested in ancient Egypt. This is also where the production of papyrus was concentrated, although it was then exported to the entire Mediterranean and was the preferred material throughout the ancient world. The word papyrus comes from Coptic (a late stage of the development of ancient Egyptian), in which the word papuro means "belonging to a king". The name reveals that in Ptolemaic times production was a royal monopoly.

History: The first preserved scroll of papyrus, but not inscribed, comes from the tomb of the great Hemaka in Saqqara from the period of the 1st dynasty, the oldest papyri described with hieroglyphs are documented from the end of the 4th and from the 5th dynasty (archive found in Abusir). Papyrus was used until approximately 1100 AD, when a change in the Egyptian climate caused the disappearance of the relevant plant, only wild forms survived. Papyrus, however, from approximately the 2nd century AD. began to be replaced by a new writing material, parchment. Although papyrus was used almost everywhere in ancient times, it was preserved only in dry climates; in other places the papyrus crumbles. The most significant papyrus finds therefore come again mainly from Egypt.