Papyrus paper has a very long history that has its origins in Egypt, where it was first manufactured around the 3rd millennium BCE. Unfortunately, no ancient Egyptian source discusses the methods used for its production. The most detailed account (although not clear in all details) was provided by Pliny (Naturalis Historia XIII,74-82).
Since the 1700’s, attempts have been made by scholars to reveal the ancient technique of manufacturing papyrus, but only modern scientific methodological approaches and experimental archaeology have made it possible to reproduce the entire process with a fair margin of certainty, which is also difficult to determine because of changes over the millennia.
With this video the basic steps of processing, which have gradually been built upon over the years, are shown.
On Monday 26 February the terrible news reached us that our colleague – and former student assistant at the Museo Egizio – Juan Archidona Ramírez had succumbed to cancer.
Among the many papyrus fragments stored in Museo Egizio, there are three large fragments of a roll which contains several hymns to the kings Ramesses VI and Ramesses VII in hieratic script.
The Turin King List, explained by Myriam Krutzsch, Kim Ryholt and Rob Demareé
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The research never succumbed the lockdown!
Let’s listen to the "home office stories" told by the scholars!
Three key elements are now accessible: the Object, in our case a papyrus fragment; the Document, in our case a papyrus roll reconstituted from several Objects (= fragments); and the Witness, a term designating one or more texts written on a Document (= papyrus roll). The registered user will be able to browse through a growing number of virtually combined manuscripts which are constantly being expanded with new information.
