The Egyptians are credited with being the first manufacturers of papyrus paper for writing purposes, using papyrus plants that then grew along the banks of the Nile River. Some archaeologists would place such paper production as far back as Abraham’s time.

Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) thrives in shallow, stagnant waters or marshes and along the banks of slow-moving rivers, such as the lower Nile, where it once flourished but is now nearly extinct. Bildad asked Job: “Will a papyrus plant grow tall without a swampy place?”​—Job 8:11; Isa 35:7.

The plant’s stems are buoyant, and to prevent the death of the infant Moses, his mother placed him in “an ark of papyrus” coated with bitumen and pitch and set him adrift on the Nile River. (Ex 2:3) Large vessels for traveling long distances were also made from papyrus. (Isa 18:2) These may have been made of bundles of papyrus stems lashed together. They had narrow ends, but the beams were broad enough to support standing passengers. In 1970, Thor Heyerdahl and a group of associates traveled across thousands of miles of the Atlantic in such a craft.

Use as Writing Material. When the Egyptians prepared papyrus for writing material, they followed a rather simple process. In gathering the stems, they prized the thick pithy part that grew under the surface of the water because it yielded the broadest and whitest raw material. The outer rinds were peeled off, and the remaining pithy cores were cut into convenient lengths of 40 to 45 cm (16 to 18 in.). Next, the cellular pith was sliced into broad, but very thin, strips. The strips were then laid out vertically on a smooth surface and allowed to overlap slightly. Another layer of papyrus strips was placed horizontally over the vertical ones. Mallets were used to beat the layers until they were bonded into a unified sheet. Then after being dried in the sun, the sheets were trimmed to the desired size. Finally, they were smoothed and polished with pumice, shells, or ivory. This process produced a fairly durable, supple, near-white writing material that was available in many sizes and degrees of quality. The side having the horizontal strips was usually chosen for writing, although at times the reverse side was used to finish a writing. The joints of the strips served to guide the writer’s hand as he wrote with a reed pen and a writing fluid made from gum, soot, and water.