Scroll

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/scroll

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary substrates?Papyrus (Egypt, plant-based) and Parchment/Vellum (Near East/Europe, animal skin-based)
2. What is the reading mechanism?Progressive unrolling and re-rolling, often facilitated by two rods (umbilicus)
3. Why did people in ancient Egypt use papyrus for scrolls?Papyrus came from Nile reeds, was easy to make into thin sheets, and could be joined together to make long texts that were cheap and handy.
4. How did scrolls help people learn and share ideas?Libraries like Alexandria kept thousands of scrolls, and scholars would read them by unrolling and rolling, which helped them study history, science, and poetry.

Codex: A book constructed of sheets of papyrus, parchment, or paper fastened together along one edge, the ancestor of the modern book.
Palimpsest: A manuscript page, such as of vellum or parchment, that has been written on, scraped off, and used again.
Textual Criticism: The scholarly study of ancient texts to determine their original wording and meaning.