Mako Hill: Making Papyrus (Spring 2000)

This projects was done as part of my final project for a Smith College class on The Technology of Reading and Writing taught by Doug Patey. My final paper on the production of papyrus in ancient Egypt and my research into historical documents to try and uncover historically accurate methods for the manufacture of papyrus is also online and available for download. Keep in mind that it was written during my first year at school. The files are VERY large due to the attached images.

Download: postscript (~19MB) | pdf (~1.5MB)

Papyrus growing in the Hampshire College greenhouse as part of an aquaculture bio-filter. This papyrus grew to this height in well under a semester. Had the plant not become infected by a parasite, it would easily have grown to over 10 feet.

Another close-up on the individual pieces of papyrus.

The first step in making papyrus is stripping the skin off the shafts. You can see me using a razor blade.

This is all the wast material (skins/tops) that went into making one piece of paper.

These are the stripped shafts before I have sliced them into strips.

Shafts cut approximately to size for one piece of paper.

Another picture of the uncut shafts with waste.

I sliced the shafts as you would peal the skin off an orange with the razor blade then I pounded them flat with a wooden mallet.

I soaked the strips in water for two or three days before I lay them out in a grid pattern (although not woven) and pressed and sun-dried the piece.

mako@bork.hampshire.edu

Last modified: Wed Feb 13 00:01:12 EST 2002