Common denomination of a plant of the Cyperus Kind, originary of north-west Africa and of Sicily, particularly the Syracuse province. It reaches 1-3 m of height, it’s woody, aromatic and unctuous. The leaves a long rigid and the stalk, straight up and with flowers, is hairless soft and triangular. The stalk, which at the base can have 5-8 cm in diameter at the top end has an umbrella with plumed flowers.
In ancientness the papyrus was cultivated both for ornamental use, as to produce common objects, such as headgears, sandals, boxes, boats and rapes; the roots were dried and used as fuel, wile the pith of the stalk was mostly used to make the homonym papery material, or it was cooked and used for alimentary purposes. The papyrus used to write by the ancient Egyptians was made of thin layers one above the other and crossed, that were obtained by the inner part of the stalk cut longitudinal. All of it was then, wet with water, pressed, dried and finally pounded or seraped with ivory or smooth shells. The sheets of papyrus, of a length between 15 and 35 cm.
Were then rolled up, probably in stripes even 8-10 m long.
Although the Greek probably knew the papyrus since the beginning of the V century BC, the most ancient Greek papyrus that has reached us is the one with the Persian version of the poet Timoteo of Mileto, who lived between the V and the IV century BC. The use of the papyrus, adopted also by the romans, lasted until the IV century AC, when it was substituted with the parchment.
Scientific classification: the papyrus belongs to the ciperacee family and it’s classified as Cyperus papyrus.