We have an utterly fucked up idea of what counts as technology. Something that projects many of our biases including gender, and race.

To many these days it's only technology if it's electronic, and used by western men. But to take such a narrow definition is to ignore the amazing technology that surrounds us, and upon which our society is built. As such. It's time for a thread. I'm gonna talk about two different items you use every day, and the technology that goes into them.

1/n

@quixoticgeek PAPER! one of the oldest technologies humans have created

@blogdiva yes. And no.

Paper as in something flat to write on goes back quite a way with first using bits of peeled animal (parchment later also vellum). Then we had papyrus. The earliest thing we might think of as paper today is 2nd century BC, in china. Paper as a substance made from plant fibres didn't make it into western Europe until after the crusades. The first paper mill north of the Alps wasn't built until 1390. The arrival of paper brought down the cost of writing dramatically.

@quixoticgeek never thought of papyrus as separate from the concept of paper but i guess they are.

@blogdiva @quixoticgeek Sorry if this is pedantic, but papyrus rose before parchment simply because of the geography of where the reeds grow. Papyrus was in use in ancient Egypt from about 3000bc. Parchment didn't really rise until the 2nd century ad.

@JenWojcik @blogdiva writing on animal skin dates from somewhere around 2550. Whether that qualifies as "parchment" is up for debate.

So yes. Papyrus comes before parchment, but papyrus didn't make it much out of Egypt.