The Early History of Books

When the worlds first writing and recorded word systems were created more than 5000 years ago almost any item was used to write or record words on. This included natural products such as stone and tree bark as well as man made items such as metal sheets, clay and even early types of paper made out of papyrus.

Did you know? The study of ancient written inscriptions is known as epigraphy.

The very first alphabetic writing emerged in Ancient Egypt over 5,000 years ago. It was recorded on sheets of paper made out of papyrus, a type of plant that grows along the Nile River even to this day.

Different types of word recording items

Although the Ancient Egyptians created and used a rudimentary form of paper to record their written words, a number of other formats also became popular over the millennia. These were often influenced by the areas or cultures that utilized them and included:

The Clay Tablet

Clay tablets were used by almost every culture that had developed the written word throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. It was made out of a flat, dry piece of clay that was easy to transport and impressed on using a dampened stylus.

Wax Tablets

Wax tablets were the ?diaries? of the ancient world. They were made of wooden planks covered in a thick coating of wax. A stylus was also used to make impressions on the wax. These could at a later date be wiped clean using a heated blade and the tablets could be used again.

Did you know? It is speculated that the first precursor to modern books was made up of up to several wax tablets bonded together and was called a pugillares

Scrolls

The first scrolls were made out of papyrus sheets similar to those created bt the Ancient Egyptians. In fact the earliest scrolls were simply ?glued? together sheets of papyrus, tree bark and lime.

It is thought that the first scrolls and writing was brought to what is now Europe by the Phoenicians via ancient Greece. This occurred in or around the 10th or 9th century BC. Scrolls soon became the dominant form of ?book? in the Hellenistic and Mediterranean cultures. It was to stay this way for a very, very long time with scrolls still being used well into medieval times.

Did you know? The Greek word for papyrus paper is (biblion) and book (biblos). These are derived from the name of a Phoenician port town called Byblos. It was through this town that papyrus was exported into Ancient Greece.

The author is a lithographic printing specialist who has worked in the South African Printing industry for over a decade. He is an avid print blogger and has written a number of historical and technical notes on printing and Digital Printing in Cape Town and South Africa.

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