Histological/Biochemical composition of papyri

Abstract

[EN] Papyrus, as a medium for writing, was made from the stems of the plant Cyperus papyrus (Basile, 1977; Wallert, 1989). Although it is unclear how papyri were produced, it is known that only the peeled stems were used in their manufacture (Basile, 1977; Franceschi et al., 2004). Non-destructive physical analysis of the surface of papyri commonly returns different results from one area of a sheet to another. The present work examines C. papyrus stems and papyri by optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to determine their histological structure and gain insight into their gross biochemical composition