The Pharaoh's Treasure

by John Gaudet

Overview

For our entire history, humans have always searched for new ways to share information. This innate compulsion led to the origin of writing on the rock walls of caves and coffin lids or carving on tablets. But it was with the advent of papyrus paper when the ability to record and transmit information exploded, allowing for an exchanging of ideas from the banks of the Nile throughout the Mediterranean—and the civilized world—for the first time in human history.In The Pharaoh’s Treasure, John Gaudet looks at this pivotal transition to papyrus paper, which would become the most commonly used information medium in the world for more than 4,000 years. Far from fragile, papyrus paper is an especially durable writing surface; papyrus books and documents in ancient and medieval times had a usable life of hundreds of years, and this durability has allowed items like the famous Nag Hammadi codices from the third and fourth century to survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681779188
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	49 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Gaudet, a professional ecologist has worked with the U.S. government and carried out research under grants from the National Geographic Society.  As an ecologist and primary environmental advisor he is now a writer and consultant.  His work has appeared in the Washington Post and he remains active in African, agricultural, and conservation/environmental agencies. John lives in northern Virginia. Visit his website at http://www.fieldofreeds.com. Review
A Fulbright Scholar to both India and Malaya, John Gaudet is a writer and practicing ecologist. His early research on papyrus, funded in part by the National Geographic Society, took him to Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, and Ethiopia. A trained ecologist with a PhD from University of California at Berkeley, he is the author of Papyrus: The Plant that Changed the World, and his writing has appeared in Science, Nature, Ecology, the Washington Post, Salon and the Huffington Post. He lives in McLean, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xiii

Prologue xvii

Part I Guardian of Immortality 1

1 The Inspector Puts Pen to Paper and Makes History 3

2 Prisse, like Moses, Carries Home Stone Tablets and Paper Scrolls 24

3 The Undertaker's Special and the World's First Bestseller 32

4 The Book of the Dead, Guardian of Immortality 45

5 Papyrus Paper, Your Ticket to Paradise 54

6 The Sands of the Nile Give Up their Treasures 69

7 The Affair of the Oranges 74

8 The Floodgates Open 83

Part II Egypt, Papermaker to the World 91

9 The Birth of Memphis and Paper 93

10 A Gift from the Gods 107

11 The Monopoly 112

12 Growing and Managing Papyrus for Paper 120

13 The Emperor and the Lewd Papermaker 127

14 Taking on the World-and Leaving a Legacy 136

Part III The Enemy of Oblivion 151

15 Early Libraries, Paper, and the Writing Business 153

16 A Library to End All Libraries and the Sweet Smell of History 167

17 The Romans and the Book Trade 177

18 Roman Libraries 186

19 Those Precious, Tender-hearted Scrolls 200

20 Saving the Day 210

21 Media One Makes Its Mark in the World 216

22 The Last Bastion, the Church of Rome 230

23 Constantinople and the Long Goodbye 238

24 End of the Road and the Battle of the Tolas River 254

25 The Mystery of the Disappearing Plant 264

26 The Pharaoh's Own Conquers the Vatican 274

27 The Road Back 285

Epilogue The Road Ahead 293

Acknowledgments 307

Supplementary Illustration Credits 311

Appendix 313

References 317

Endnotes 327

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

10/29/2018
Ecologist and papyrus expert Gaudet (Papyrus: The Plant That Changed the World) gives a fascinating, thought-provoking history of papyrus’s use in communication. He maintains that humanity’s “habit and expectation of writing things down became a hallmark of civilized life... thanks to papyrus.” His accessible and engagingly written account begins with the earliest known use of papyrus as a writing surface, during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu in the 26th century BCE. Recently discovered documents show it was used to track deliveries of limestone for the construction of the Great Pyramid. The technology spread beyond the Egyptians; papyri served as diaries, property records, census rolls, scientific and medical texts, and legal documents for the ancient Greeks and Romans. Papyrus paper became so vital that when supplies ran short in the Roman Empire in the first century CE, rationing was imposed to avoid significant disruptions to daily life. Gaudet calls upon a wide array of sources, both ancient texts and modern historians and archeologists, to support his contention persuasively. This argument that the use of papyrus for writing was a “key element of global cultural advancement” is an appealing addition to the genre of single-topic histories such as Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History. Illus. Agent: Jacquelyn Flynn, Delbourgo Associates. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Is there anything that papyrus can’t do? Offering abundant information, Gaudet’s combination of environmental advocacy and botanical objectivity forms a unique resource about a unique organism.

Booklist (Praise for PAPYRUS)

A fascinating account of the plant that provided the world with paper for the first four thousand years of its history. Lively and well written.

Jean-Daniel Stanley

This fascinating and beautifully written book is an absolute eye opener. John Gaudet has a remarkable story to tell, and he tells it extremely well. A wonderful, enlightening book.

Alexander McCall Smith