Egyptology | Chapter 16: Writing Implements and Materials (Papyrus and Ostraca)

Egypt had the distinction of pioneering writing before other civilisations, and consequently was earlier than others in knowing the many writing implements and materials that were used by professional scribes as well as by educated people in general.

The Egyptian expressed in numerous ways his respect for the profession of writing. For this reason he prepared statues of scribes and depicted them on buildings and on writing materials while carrying their implements. The Egyptian artist also left us a large number of writing implements, with which the Egyptian Museum and other museums are richly supplied.

Perhaps the oldest statue of a scribe is the statue of Kawab, one of the sons of King Khufu, which represents him seated in a squatting position, spreading a roll of papyrus across his thighs and holding a writing reed in his right hand, as if waiting to write what will be dictated to him.

Among the oldest scenes that depict the scribe and his implements are those carved on the wooden panels that were contained in the mastaba of Hesire of the Third Dynasty at Saqqara, which represent him standing or seated with the writing implements hanging from his shoulder.

The scribe’s implements consist of a palette made of wood, which usually contains three cavities: two of circular shape for placing the ink cakes, one for red ink and the other for black ink. The third cavity was elongated and contained the pens. From the palette emerges a string to which is tied a small vessel containing water used to dissolve the ink cakes. Connected to the vessel is a case that holds more than one writing reed.

As for the inks, they were made from natural materials. Red ink was extracted from red ochre (iron oxide); black from carbon material obtained from the soot resulting from the burning of certain substances; blue from blue copper carbonate; green from copper compounds (malachite); and white from powdered limestone (calcium carbonate).

Arabic gum or animal glue dissolved in water was added to these colours in order to fix them. They were ground together until the mixture became fine, then dried so that it took the form of a cake and was fixed in the cavity of the palette.

Black ink was the more frequently used on papyrus. Red was used to mark the beginning of paragraphs and to correct errors.

As for the artist who painted on the walls of tombs, he first sketched in red ink, then drew and corrected in black ink. With regard to the pen used by the scribe, it was made from the halfa plant, known in the ancient Egyptian language as swt. The best part of the stem was the one used; its tip was cut obliquely so that it appeared pointed. As for writing materials, there were papyrus, ostraca, bone, ivory and wood. The most common, however, were papyrus and ostraca (that is, sherds or potsherds).

Papyrus

The manufacture of paper from the papyrus plant represents an outstanding landmark on the path of Egyptian civilisation. It was a major leap in the life of man. Instead of carving on stone – with all the effort, time and expense that this involved, in addition to the fact that writing on stone is not practical in any way (error and erasure, and the correction of a mistake, are difficult and sometimes require the replacement of the stone), and the transport of stone even over short distances represents a heavy burden – papyrus paper facilitated the transmission of culture, knowledge and news from place to place within Egypt, and also played a major role in facilitating communication between Egypt and the countries of the outside world.

Because papyrus was an original Egyptian invention, it was exported from Egypt to certain surrounding countries. We imagine that the port of “Byblos” (present-day Jbeil) in Lebanon bears a name corrupted from the ancient Egyptian and Greek name for papyrus, pa-per-aa and papyrus. This port must have been the export harbour for this paper to the countries of the Mediterranean basin. It is therefore no wonder that a Greek philosopher wrote to his colleague saying: “We can no longer write because papyrus no longer reaches us from Egypt.”

Papyrus is an aquatic plant that grows in the marshes and swamps and belongs to the Cyperaceae family, which no longer grows in the marshes of the Delta but still grows in the Sudan. It is a plant with a triangular stem that reaches a height of about 6 m, and is known scientifically as Cyperus papyrus.

In addition to its use in the manufacture of paper, papyrus was also used in the manufacture of Nile boats, baskets and other objects.

The stem of the papyrus consists of two parts: a thin, hard outer rind like the rind of a reed, and an inner pith that is the part used in the manufacture of paper.

The ancient Egyptian left us no text that speaks about the manufacture of paper from this plant. The historian Pliny, however, described some of the steps of this industry. He stated that the stem is cut into small pieces from which strips are extracted; these are laid side by side, then another set of strips is placed over them at right angles; they are then moistened with Nile water and dried under the rays of the sun.

In reality, what Pliny mentioned does not differ greatly from the stages through which the manufacture of paper from the papyrus plant passes, as shown by experiments carried out in the last century, with the exception that Pliny did not mention that the outer rind was removed and then the strips prepared – a process that did take place in ancient Egypt and that modern experiments have confirmed. There are, however, some details, such as soaking the strips in pure water, placing cloth beneath and above the strips to absorb the water, then beating the strips for about two hours with a wooden mallet, after which the paper is placed in a small press to achieve the cohesion of the strips.

As for the name “papyrus,” it is derived from the compound ancient Egyptian word pa-per-aa, which means “that which belongs to the palace,” in reference to the fact that the manufacture of papyrus was a royal monopoly. It was then corrupted to pārou in Coptic, becoming papyrus in Greek, then papyrus (plural papyri) in the European languages, and then bardī in Arabic, with the observation of the addition of the letter “d” and the dropping of one of the two letters “b.” It then became paper in English.

A sheet of papyrus had two sides. The first side, with the horizontal (transverse) fibres, is known as the recto and is the side used for writing. The other side (the back of the papyrus), with the vertical (longitudinal) fibres, is known as the verso, which is used only in rare cases, such as the completion of a text or the writing of an address for the recipient so that it appears on the outside when the papyrus is rolled up to take the form of a “scroll” – the form that we have preserved in our modern and contemporary times when we fold our important documents, especially in the Egyptian countryside.

Ostraca

The writing material that comes next to papyrus in importance is pottery sherds, which, when written upon, are known as “ostraca.” A pottery sherd corresponds in classical Arabic to lakhfa, in the colloquial to shaqfa, and in foreign languages to ostracon (plural ostraca).

Pottery sherds are the product of pottery tools and vessels that break and are thrown away in places outside the residential area. The sherds may also be of limestone.

The middle class, as well as the poor, found in pottery sherds what they needed for use as a material for writing rapid reports and the traditional subjects of daily life, such as accounts, lists of names, and the numerous taxes that were imposed on the Egyptians in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. A person had to go to the place where pottery sherds or stones were collected in order to pick up what suited him free of charge for use as writing material, because of the high price of papyrus paper.

While official, legal and literary subjects were recorded on papyrus sheets, economic, social and other subjects were recorded on pottery sherds (“ostraca”). And while the hieroglyphic script is the script of massive constructions such as temples and tombs, the hieratic, demotic, Coptic, Greek and other scripts were written on papyrus and ostraca.

Module Key Takeaways

Papyrus was a revolutionary writing material made from the papyrus plant, enabling widespread dissemination of knowledge.
Ostraca (pottery sherds) served as an inexpensive alternative for everyday writing and administrative records.
The scribe’s toolkit included a palette, ink cakes, and a reed pen, reflecting the sophistication of Egyptian writing culture.