papyrus

Ingredients

Cyperus papyrus, gesso plaster

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The papyrus (charta) was manufactured from the Cyperus papyrus plant. In the Bawit monastery group, the high lignin content suggests that the outer layers of the stem were included, indicating a scarcity of raw materials or lower production quality in monastic environments (p. 10). Sample 172 indicates a technique where discarded papyrus was processed into 'papier-mâché' and covered with a coating of 'gesso plaster' for reuse in mummy cases (p. 11).

Evidence

"Analysis results of clean papyrus fibres indicate that they are very homogeneous and most have a high lignin content. This suggests lower manufacturing standards, where techniques for the preparation of papyrus strips might not have been so careful as to prevent the outer more lignin rich layers of the stem added into the papyrus charta."

Remarks

Papyri from the Monastery of Bawit show homogeneity in their degradation and composition, whereas samples from Oxyrhynchus show a much wider chronological and cultural diversity (p. 7). Lignin bands (1715, 1515, and 1270 cm−1) were specifically identified as markers for the quality of the papyrus support (p. 4).