page_title: Cyperus papyrus
section_title: Papyrus in history
hierarchical_section_title: Cyperus papyrus / Papyrus in history
context_page_description: Cyperus papyrus, papyrus, papyrus sedge, paper reed, Indian matting plant or Nile grass, is a species of aquatic flowering plant belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is a tender herbaceous perennial, native to Africa, and forms tall stands of reed-like swamp vegetation in shallow water.
  Papyrus sedge has a very long history of use by humans, notably by the Ancient Egyptians—it is the source of papyrus paper, one of the first types of paper ever made. Parts of the plant can be eaten, and the highly buoyant stems can be made into boats. It is now often cultivated as an ornamental plant.
  In nature, it grows in full sun, in flooded swamps, and on lake margins throughout Africa, Madagascar, and the Mediterranean countries.
context_section_description: Egyptians used the plant (which they called aaru) for many purposes, including for making papyrus. Its name has an uncertain origin, but was rendered in Hellenistic Greek as πάπυρος.
  Cyperus papyrus is nearly extinct in its native habitat in the Nile Delta, where in ancient times it was widely cultivated. It is for example depicted on a restored stucco fragment from the palace of Amenhotep III near the present day village of Malkata. In Egypt today, only a small population remains in Wadi El Natrun. Theophrastus's History of Plants (Book iv. 10) states that it grew in Syria, and according to Pliny's Natural History, it was also a native plant of the Niger River and the Euphrates.
  Neither the explorer Peter Forsskål, an apostle of Carl Linnaeus, in the 18th century, nor the Napoleonic expedition saw it in the delta.
  Aside from papyrus, several other members of the genus Cyperus may also have been involved in the multiple uses Egyptians found for the plant. Its flowering heads were linked to make garlands for the gods in gratitude. The pith of young shoots was eaten both cooked and raw. Its woody root made bowls and other utensils and was burned for fuel. From the stems were made reed boats (seen in bas-reliefs of the Fourth Dynasty showing men cutting papyrus to build a boat; similar boats are still made in southern Sudan), sails, mats, cloth, cordage, and sandals. Theophrastus states that King Antigonus made the rigging of his fleet of papyrus, an old practice illustrated by the ship's cable, wherewith the doors were fastened when Odysseus slew the suitors in his hall (Odyssey xxi. 390).
  The "rush" or "reed" basket in which the Biblical figure Moses was placed may have been made from papyrus.
  The adventurer Thor Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus, Ra and Ra II, in an attempt to demonstrate that ancient African or Mediterranean people could have reached America.  He succeeded in sailing Ra II from Morocco to Barbados. Fishermen in the Okavango Delta use small sections of the stem as floats for their nets.
caption: Papyrus paper
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