Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Papyrus
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Documents written on papyrus == [[File:Papyrus bill of sale donkey.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bill of sale for a donkey in [[Koine Greek|Greek]], 126 AD; papyrus; 19.3 by 7.2 cm, MS Gr SM2223, Houghton Library, Harvard University]] The word for the material papyrus is also used to designate documents written on sheets of it, often rolled up into scrolls. The plural for such documents is papyri. Historical papyri are given identifying names β generally the name of the discoverer, first owner, or institution where they are kept β and numbered, such as "[[Papyrus Harris I]]". Often an abbreviated form is used, such as "pHarris I". These documents provide important information on ancient writings; they give us the only extant copy of [[Menander]], the Egyptian [[Book of the Dead]], Egyptian treatises on medicine (the [[Ebers Papyrus]]) and on surgery (the [[Edwin Smith papyrus]]), Egyptian mathematical treatises (the [[Rhind papyrus]]), and Egyptian folk tales (the [[Westcar Papyrus]]). When, in the 18th century, a library of ancient papyri was found in [[Herculaneum]], ripples of expectation spread among the learned men of the time. However, since these papyri were badly charred, their unscrolling and deciphering are still going on today.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)