papyrus roll (χάρτης, chartēs), sheets (κόλλημα, kollēma)

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The roll was a modular item made of sheets (kollēmata) pasted together. The overlapping part of two pasted sheets is called κόλλησις (kollēsis) (p. 231). The roll was prepared by smoothing its surface and was typically intended to be written on one side (recto), which was protected on the inside of the roll (p. 232).

Evidence

"The papyrus roll (χάρτης, chartēs) was made of sheets of the same dimensions (the Greek word for ‘sheet’ is κόλλημα, kollēma – pl. κολλἤματα, kollēmata) pasted one after the other."

Remarks

Standard rolls were often made of twenty kollēmata (p. 231). Tomoi sunkollēsimoi were composite rolls created by pasting originally independent documents into a longer strip (p. 233). Papyrus was often reused, with a different text written on the verso after the recto had already been used (p. 232).