A carrier of information from the reed stalks. Ancient media of information

We use CDs, USB flash drives and paper almost every day, but we do not even imagine that these media have their own history. Moreover, their appearance was preceded by other ways of storing and transmitting messages, samples of which today can be found, perhaps, only in museums. Ancient media of information were improved in the process of developing people's skills and abilities. Each new look was more convenient and effective than the previous one. Today, the information carrier from the reed stalks, ancient parchments or clay tablets tell a lot about the life in the distant past to scientists. Some of them are significantly ahead of modern analogues in terms of storage time.

In the dimness of caves

The first media, known to scientists, is the wall images. They meet in caves in different parts of the world. Initially, the coating compositions were probably used for the application. Over time, the fragility of such drawings was noticed, and as a tool sharp stones began to be used. They were scratched on the walls petroglyphs (the name is derived from the Greek words "stone" and "carving"). The main subjects of rock paintings are hunting, animals, everyday scenes. Today, the purpose of such drawings remains unclear. There are versions that they were of a religious nature or were created to decorate a home, and, perhaps, were a way to convey information to fellow tribesmen.

The most ancient examples of rock art have a very long history. Archaeologists assume that they were created more than forty thousand years ago.

Clay

Evolution of information carriers was on the way of searching for materials that are easy to use and capable of simultaneously keeping the message for as long as possible. Petroglyphs and rock art were replaced by clay tablets. Their origin is associated with the origin of writing in Egypt and Mesopotamia. What were such information carriers? The table consisted of a plate covered with a thin layer of clay. For the tracing of symbols, stone or wooden sticks were used. Wrote on raw clay, then the plate was dried. Further with it it was possible to act in one of two ways: either to leave and if necessary to erase the inscription, moistened it with water, or bake. In the latter case, the information was retained for a long time, until the carrier was destroyed. Remains of such tablets archaeologists find to this day. These are very valuable finds, able to tell a lot about how our ancestors lived.

There are also clay tablets with cuneiform writing, first appeared on the territory of Ancient Sumer in the third millennium BC. Many people used this type of information carrier right up until the appearance of paper.

Wax

In ancient Rome, there were wax tablets. They were made from boxwood, beech or bone and had a special deepening for paraffin. Wax was written with a stylus, a pointed metal rod. Such tablets could easily be used again: the signs were easily erased. Unfortunately, the temperature conditions did not allow most records on such carriers to survive. However, some samples have survived to this day. One of them is a polyptych (several waxen tablets fastened with leather straps) containing the Novgorod code, found on the territory of this ancient Russian city.

Information carrier from the reed stalks

Any kind of tablets, as well as wooden books, had one significant drawback - they weighed a lot. It is not surprising, therefore, that the further development of ways of storing and transmitting information has gone along the path of finding an easier basis. The solution was invented by the Egyptians. In the second half of the third millennium BC they came up with a carrier of information from the reed stalks. It was a papyrus, which was made from the same plant. At that time, this relative sedge was distributed in the delta of the Nile. There are practically no wild papyrus species.

Technology

The carrier of information from the reed stems was created in several stages. At first the plant was cleared from the bark, and its core was cut into thin strips. Then, on a level surface, they were laid out in a dense layer. After that, a part of the strips were placed over the decomposed at right angles. All covered with a flat stone and after a while left under the sun. When the resulting sheet became dry enough, it was beaten with a hammer and smoothed.

Papyrus often joined together, glued together. We obtained rather long ribbons, which were stored in the form of scrolls. The first papyrus was called the "protocol". The face of the scroll was the one where the fibers were horizontal.

Reusable

Papyrus, a photo of which can be seen on any site devoted to the history of Egypt, was often used more than once. When the information on the front side became irrelevant or simply unnecessary, the records filled the turnover. Often various literary works were placed here. Sometimes the text that was obsolete was washed away from the front.

On papyri in ancient Egypt placed both sacred texts and records relating to everyday household concerns. The carrier of information from the reed stems appears to have appeared here simultaneously with the birth of writing, in the pre-dynastic era. Often on the found sheets of scrolls you can see images.

Finds

Papyrus is not the most reliable information keeper. To preserve them in an unchanged form is possible only under certain conditions, therefore in museums they can be seen placed in closed glass boxes, inside which the necessary temperature and humidity are maintained. Papyruses have been used throughout Greece and Rome, but only copies preserved in Egypt have survived to this day: the climate of this country has a less destructive effect on the fragile material of the carrier.

Thanks to special conditions in the Nile Valley, archaeologists and historians were able to get acquainted with Aristotle's Athenian Politics, the Latin poem Alcestida of Barcelona, and some works by Menander and Philodemus Gadarsky. Scrolls with these samples of ancient literature were discovered in Egypt.

End of an era

Evolution, which passed the ancient media, did not stand still. Papyrus was actively used in the East until the 8th century AD. However, in Europe, in the early Middle Ages, they were replaced by a carrier of information from animal skin. Contributed to this as a short shelf life of papyrus (it was stored no more than 200 years), and the reduction in the number of plants in Egypt.

Animal skin as information keeper

Parchment appeared in the 5th century. BC. E. In Persia. From there he got to Ancient Greece, where he became quite active from the II century BC. It was at this time that Egypt imposed a ban on the export of papyrus from the country. Such a decision should lead to the exaltation of the Alexandria Library in comparison with the city of Pergamum in Asia Minor. Then the Greeks remembered the invention of the Persians, perfected the technology and began to use new material. In this regard, the carrier of information from the skin of animals and was called "parchment." In Greece, sheepskin and goat skins specially processed for its production were used.

Paper era

Parchment was used as the main writing material until the birth of printing. And then for some time the animal skins were used in parallel with the paper. However, the laboriousness of producing parchment prompted him to gradually abandon it in favor of new media.

Paper, according to the Chinese chronicles, was invented in the beginning of the second century AD Tsai Lun. Archaeological excavations, however, indicate the earlier origin of this material (approximately II century BC). Tsai Lun, according to modern ideas, improved technology, made paper cheaper and more durable. The process of manufacturing the writing material was then finalized: glue, starch and dyes began to be added to the main raw materials (rags, ashes, hemp). In general, however, the composition of modern paper differs little from the original.

In the 11th-12th centuries a new medium of information came to Europe and supplanted parchment. With the development of printing, the production of paper began to increase strongly. Further transformation of this information carrier to a greater extent was due to the improvement of production methods, a gradual transition from manual production to mechanized.

Today, paper is slowly being replaced by digital and electronic counterparts. The main characteristic of information carriers in our time is the amount of memory. Paper gradually loses its significance, although it is still produced in huge quantities. Parchment and papyrus, photos of which are easy to find on the Internet, have become the property of the past, although the first is used today by artists. The history of information carriers illustrates mankind's striving for progress, as well as the timeliness of even the most familiar attributes of life.