The Origins of Paper.
Egypt 3,000 BC
In our quest to discover the origins of paper, our minds might wander back over 5000 years ago to the Nile river valley in Egypt. It was there that a marsh grass called Cyperous Papyrus flourished. The Egyptians cut thin strips from the plant's stem and softened them in the muddy waters of the Nile. These strips were then layered in right angles to form a kind of mat. The mat was then pounded into a thin sheet and left in the sun to dry. The resulting sheets were ideal for writing on. Since they were also lightweight and portable they became the writing medium of choice of Egyptians, Greeks and Romans for record keeping, spiritual texts and works of art.
The father of true paper - T'sai Lun
Soon after experimenting with a wide variety of materials in 216 A.D., a resident of China, T’sai Lun, refined the process of macerating the fibre of plants until each filament was completely separate. The individual fibres were mixed with water in a large vat. Next, a screen was submerged in the vat and lifted up through the water, catching the fibers on its surface. When dried, this thin layer of intertwined fiber became what today we call paper.
Spread of Papermaking
A Million Prayers
Of the Asian countries that mastered the secret art of papermaking during the first millennia, Japan was the first to refine the art of paper making. There, during the 8th century, the Empress Shotuka undertook a massive project consisting of printing a million prayers - dharani - on individual sheets of paper, with each mounted in its own pagoda.
Keen observers will note that the paper on which the Dharani is printed bears an eerie resemblance to a geocacher’s log. Many geocachers, yours truly included, have invoked innumerable prayers when working on puzzles or trying to find a cache in a field of boulders or a nano in an enormous evergreen. Many will agree that in the absence of a hint or checker, venturing in a dark, vine laden, watery and mosquito infested bog is nothing more than navigating “on a wing and a prayer”. Did Empress Shotuka, as did Nostradamus many years later, predict the creation of a game that would make extensive use of paper and prayers. We will never know. What we do know, however, is that this last paragraph will not help you in the least to solve this puzzle.
500X707*250X353*74X105*420X594*707X1000*
297X420*148X210*88X125*353X500*44X62*
For more information on the origins of paper, please go to: Paper Making
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