II

_Writing Materials_

As already indicated, the writing materials in use in different places
and at different times have varied greatly. Obviously anything capable
of receiving an impression or bearing a mark of any kind may be used as
material for receiving records or bearing communications.

The surface of a stone, a bone, or a shell, a flat piece of wood, bark
or leaf of a tree, a plate of metal, the facet of a gem, any one of a
thousand things can be used and has been used for this purpose. The
Egyptians and Greeks were in the habit of using the fragments of broken
pottery for their less important records. The materials which have been
most used, however, have been the Assyrian clay tablet, which has been
already described, papyrus, vellum, and paper.

Papyrus was made from a reed which grew abundantly in the Nile Valley
and less abundantly in some other places. It is now nearly extinct but
it grows in small quantities in Sicily, where papyrus is still made for
sale to tourists but not in commercial quantities. The reed was called
by the Greeks "_bublos_," or "_biblos_," from which the Greeks got the
word _biblion_, a book, and we get the words bible, bibliography, etc.

Papyrus was made by cutting the stalk of the reed lengthwise into very
thin strips. These strips were laid side by side on a board until the
desired width was obtained. Another layer of shorter strips was then
laid across the long ones entirely covering them. This mat, or "net" as
it was technically called, was then soaked in the water of the Nile.
Whether there was any particular virtue in the Nile water, which is
always more or less charged with mud, or the desired result was obtained
simply by the action of water on the reed itself, is not clear. After
the soaking was completed, the "net" was dried in the sun, hammered to
expel air and water, polished by rubbing with some hard smooth
substance, and probably sized, although it is possible that all the
sizing necessary was provided by the sap of the reed itself. The sheets
were then trimmed even and joined by the edges into a long strip,
usually of about twenty sheets. This was rolled on a stick and was then
ready for sale as writing material. The quality of the papyrus varied
according to the part of the reed from which the strips were cut, and it
was the commercial custom to put sheets of varying quality into the same
strip or roll. The best sheets were put on the end which would come o