tatramatra t1_iv55vum wrote on November 5, 2022 at 11:46 AM

Depends which writings and when. Papyrus scrolls were used to store large literally works, but papyrus was expensive and had to be imported from Egypt. Vellum and parchment were used too, both been made from skins of calf or sheep/goat respectively. Another alternative was sheets of textile -paradoxically some ancient literally works were preserved to our times because they were reused as wrappings for mummies in Egypt (up to Roman imperial times).

Note that all above materials were fairly expensive and not readily available for commoners. While today textile for example is cheap and mass produced, in historical pre-industrial times textiles had to be laboriously made by hand. Similarly vellum and parchment had to be laboriously made by working off and thinning out the skins of animals.

For shorter more day to day texts and records, clay/pottery was used. Either in form of sun dried tablets or shards (called ostraca).

LateInTheAfternoon t1_ivey1pl wrote on November 7, 2022 at 2:05 PM

Papyrus, while not exactly cheap, was not expensive either. Sure, a long roll would cost you, but shorter formats would have been easily affordable to most. Most of the extant papyri fragments testify to this, as ca 90 % are letters, archival notes, records, accounts, and contracts. Every day use objects in other words. Vellum and parchment on the other hand were much more expensive.

tatramatra t1_ivezb3m wrote on November 7, 2022 at 2:15 PM

In Egypt for sure. In Greece, no. And then even in Egypt it was in every day use by higher ups. Common people did not even know how to write.

There is reason why people were busy looking for alternatives. If papyrus was inexpensive every day item for most, people would not use sheets of leather laboriously made by tinning out skins of animals instead.