Over the years, I’ve had many occasions to talk about the manufacture of papyrus rolls. I typically describe them as fairly simple artifacts–several individual sheets of papyrus pasted together to form a roll. And a papyrus roll is relatively simple when compared to a codex, with its different materials and many parts. But I’ve recently been trying to make a good quality papyrus roll, and it has turned out to be a little more complicated than I anticipated. The main issue is just the size. Papyrus rolls in antiquity could be quite long.
It can be a little challenging to get a sense of just how long these rolls actually were. Even when they have survived intact, they tend to be cut into pieces so that they can fit in reasonably sized glass frames. But when you see a well preserved roll laid out, you get an impression of the scale of these things. Here is a recently discovered Hieratic papyrus roll that is 16 meters (≈52.5 feet) long. Note that most of it is still rolled up near the head of the gentleman with the magnifying glass:
I’ve been experimenting with making a shorter roll. My original idea was to aim for a roll of about 10 meters, what we might think of as an “average” papyrus roll of the Roman period. I had 25 papyrus sheets (30 cm high and about 40 cm wide). So far so good. But I immediately faced several hurdles:
- Simply having access to a large enough space to make something 10 meters (≈33 feet) long
- Making a wheat flour paste that is the right consistency–thick enough to hold the sheets together but not so thick that it becomes overly stiff when dry
- Applying the paste evenly and fully without creating overflow
- Keeping the sheets properly aligned when pasting, especially as the roll becomes longer
- Having a sufficient number of suitable weights to keep pressure on the kollēseis (the overlapping areas where the sheets are pasted together) while drying
These factors combined to make me a bit less ambitious and to trim the roll size by half. My first attempt is still drying. I’ll post later with the results.
Variant Readings 
I admire you for doing this exercise. I have a replica of a book of the dead printed on papyrus that I got from a friend in the US plus I have a full size copy of the Isaiah scroll that someone made for me years ago, so I know how cumbersome the scroll format is. In our modern world we take our books or codex format for granted. I’m just surprised it took three thousand years to develop the codex in popular form. Looking forward to seeing your work on this project. I have tried glueing three sheets of papyrus together so it will be interesting to see how you go over a long run.
Brent, thanks for sharing this incredibly informative information and your perspectives through Variant Readings. When Variant Readings appears in the email it’s a good day. This particular message is very interesting in terms of proportions. The room space required to construct papyrus hadn’t occurred to me. Perhaps in the old days they did this outside in the Summer in the Middle East? But even so, that’s not satisfying the need for a 30 meter table or 30 meters of flat rock. There must have been facilities prepared to serve as a construction factory for papyrus and there must have been a market for papyrus and different qualities of manufacture. Was production of papyrus an industry of it’s own with competition?
You’ve made me interested enough in papyrus that I joined the American Society of Papyrologists to receive their annual Bulletin, which is interesting and fun. Also, among other things, I found Gordon Fee‘s doctoral dissertation on Bodmer II, which is very interesting and free.
I also need to let you know that I’m following your advice of a year ago(Jan 27): I purchased the books by Serfass, Colvin, and P.W. Pestman and have been studying them. Also, I’ve read the Greek NT through a second time: Reading a verse in Greek, comparing my understanding to English translations, and making a lot of marginal notes. The first time using the Fourth Edition and the second time using the Fifth. I also obtained “Septuaginta: a Reader’s Edition”, by Lanier and Ross, which says it is targeted to students of the NT. I’m focusing on the Hellenistic period. A year ago I asked you for advice on broadening my understanding of Ancient Greek by progressing my knowledge towards Classical; and that may always a good objective for me to have, but I also feel a lead weight or something returning me to study of the Greek NT. It’s all a very rich and exciting way to spend my retirement years. Thanks again for your very considerate help and may you have great success in your incredibly interesting endeavors!
Sincerely,
Richard B. Calahan Springfield Virginia
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks, Richard. Fee’s dissertation is a classic. It was in fact reprinted just a couple years ago along with several other related articles of his. I reviewed the volume here: https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2022/2022.02.32/
The long table problem sometimes requires a long table. When I bound the edition of Buckminster Fuller’s Tetrascroll in the mid-1970s the pages had to align with close tolerance to scroll into a tetrahedron. After a couple of copies I surfaced the table with formica, engraved parallel lines accurate to 1/100″ over a 40 foot length, and filled the lines with black enamel.
https://www.minsky.com/tscroll1b.htm
But for a flexible material like papyrus or paper, a short table with two reels is adequate, as the paste is set enough in a couple of minutes to roll it. That’s what I did for
https://minsky.com/sappho.htm
Hi Richard. Thanks for sharing these links. I did not know about the Tetrascroll. It’s a very interesting object, and congratulations for the production! I like the idea of a table with reels. I add it to the list for the day when I can have a proper workshop…
Many thanks, Brent!
Are you familiar with the work of Jörg Graf in Leipzig who led the making of a 1:1 replica of Ebers papyrus (16th century BCE, more than 18m long)?
https://www.ub.uni-leipzig.de/en/about-us/exhibitions/permanent-exhibition/ebers-papyrus/
It would be nice to organize a workshop gathering anyone interested in experimental papyrology and paleography, we’re several around interested in these questions. For instance, I tend now to question the very use of tables after having heard Gregg Schwendner on scribes writing on their up-raised knee attested continuously from pharaonic time to 19th (he had nice photographs from Sudan)… could the making be on the floor on wood boards/tablets?
Hi Isabelle! Nice to hear from you! Yes, I just met Jörg in November when he came to Oslo to clean and reframe the large papyrus roll P.Oslo 1.1. In fact I should write up a post about this. It was a great visit. We made papyrus sheets together using the method of Ignace Hendriks, which Jörg endorses. I was surprised by the good quality of some of the results, but it was more challenging than the more typical “strip” method. But yes, I like the idea of getting an experimental group together!
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