10 ways people kept records before paper
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Today, we live in a digital, "paperless" world. But what about the days before paper? Here are 10 ways people kept records before paper and mass printing became available.TRANSCRIPT
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By Renee Floyd
10 Ways
People Kept
Records Before Paper
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Today, we live in a digital, “paperless” world. We can fit thousands of
pages of information on a pocket-size
flash drive.
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But how did we record informationbefore paper?
Caxton Showing the First Specimen of His Printing to King Edward IV at the Almonry, Westminster, 1851.
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Here are 10 ways we kept records before paper and mass printing
became available.
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1. Bamboo
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• Chinese scholars wrote on bamboo stalks as long ago as 500 BCE.
• The scholars used small knives to scrape away mistakes. These knives became a symbol of political stature, as the owners had the power to change records.
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2. Birch Bark
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• Birch bark manuscripts have been found in India, Russia and the Middle East.
• Birch bark was used in medieval Russia for school exercises, personal letters and business ledgers.
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3. Bones & Shells
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• Ancient Chinese oracles used shell & bone fragments to predict future events.
• Oracles carved questions onto the bone or shell, then applied heat until it cracked. They interpreted the crack patterns as answers from deities.
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These “oracle bones” date back to 1400 BCE &
represent the earliest records of Chinese writing.
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4. Clay Tablets
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• The first libraries consisted of clay tablet archives.
• Ancient Mediterranean civilizations used clay tablets for sophisticated accounting systems.
• Cuneiform, one of the earliest writing systems, is often found on clay tablets.
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5. Ostraca
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• Ostraca, or broken pieces of pottery, are considered the “scrap paper” of ancient civilizations.
• Ancient Athenians used ostraca to cast votes when the government wanted to banish a citizen. This gave rise to the term “ostracize” which means to exile or banish.
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6. Palm Leaves
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• Palm leaves were used in Southeast Asia as early as 1500 BCE.
• Scholars theorize that Southeast Asian scripts contain mostly rounded shapes because angular letters split and broke the palm leaves.
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7. Papyrus
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• The oldest discovered papyrus scrolls date back to 2500 BCE.
• The word “paper” derives from the word “papyrus.”
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Papyrus was expensive to produce and became a monopolized resource in the city of Alexandria.It was often washed and reused to save money.
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8. Parchment
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• Parchment is made from goat, sheep or cow skin.
• Its use as a writing medium was perfected in Pergamon (modern day Turkey) as a cheaper alternative to Egyptian papyrus.
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9. Silk
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• Some of the earliest known manuscripts of I Ching and Tao de Ching exist on 2,000 year old silk.
• Silk manuscripts were used for philosophical, mathematical and military records in China.
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10. Wax Tablets
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• Entire tablets could be erased by melting the layer of wax, giving rise to the Latin expression “tabula rasa” or “clean slate.”
• Wax tablets were made of wood panels covered in soft wax.
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Check out the Ultimate Guide to Records Management to learn about
the future of records in a paperless world.
Thanks for viewing!
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