The first written documents were found in Mesopotamia. Sumerian clay tablets were covered with pictograms. They were the prototype of the later Babylonian cuneiform. For almost 2000 years, tablets were the only information carrier, until the ancient Egyptians learned how to process papyrus.
Elder Scrolls Format
In ancient times, the layout of the text depended on the content. Horizontal scrolls were used to record literary works. The text was grouped into columns. The height ranged from 20 to 40 cm, and the length could reach several meters. The narrowest scrolls were used to record verses.
Documents were oriented vertically. On ancient engravings, you can see heralds with a scroll in their right hand, who hold the lower left edge and read out an important decree. The information was recorded in continuous text without the use of paragraphs. Finding the right piece was extremely difficult.
Papyrus was very expensive, and its area was used irrationally - the reverse side of the scrolls remained empty. The ancient book publishers came up with the idea of cutting the papyrus into pieces and connectingtheir binding. The cover was usually made of leather. The prototypes of modern books were called codices. In fact, it was a collection of several separate documents in one cover. Despite the seeming convenience, the codices have not received such distribution as the scrolls. The papyrus broke when turning the pages. The book acquired its modern look only in the early Middle Ages, when parchment was invented.
Scrolls were made not only from papyrus. In India, banana leaves were used, in Ancient Russia - birch bark. The most famous of the ancient scrolls are the Book of the Dead and the Torah. It is worth talking about them in more detail.
Book of the Dead
A masterpiece of ancient Egyptian writing is kept in museums around the world. Ancient papyri were found during excavations of temples in Thebes, the religious center of the pharaonic empire. According to historians, the book was created over several centuries.
This fundamental treatise describes burial rituals. The earlier fragments contain only prayers, but later there are vivid illustrations and moral discourses.
Torah: sacred text on skin
In 2013, the oldest record of the Pentateuch of Moses was discovered in the storerooms of the University of Bologna. By mistake of an employee for a long time, the artifact was attributed to the 17th century. Radiocarbon analysis has shown that the document is at least 850 years old. A photo of an old scroll appeared in the pages of newspapers around the world.
The ancient manuscript is made of sheep skin. Scroll lengthis 36 m. The sacred texts are written in columns in Hebrew. In speech turns there are words that belong to the ancient Babylonian period. Some fragments have been banned since the 12th century.
From the ancient Sumerians to the present day, the form of books has undergone significant changes. The knowledge stored in the huge library of Ashurbanipal, today fits on one removable media. But the importance of written monuments can hardly be overestimated: after all, they allow us to trace the development of human thought from the archaic era to the era of digital information.
