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Author Appearance: John Gaudet
The Origin of Paper and Books and the Rise of Western Civilization – An illustrated talk by John Gaudet on the making of ancient paper and the books and documents that came from it. This represents one of the most astonishing and exciting stories in the history of the world; a tale of human endeavor that spans a period from the Stone Age almost to the time of Gutenberg; an interval that includes three-fourths of recorded history. See and feel modern examples of ancient Egyptian paper used to make the first Christian Bibles and books as well as samples of ancient parchment and handmade pulp paper.
THE PHARAOH’S TREASURE is a thought-provoking history of paper—from its origins in Egypt to its spread throughout the world—revealing how it helped usher in a new era of human history. For our entire history, humans have always searched for new ways to share information. This innate compulsion led to the origin of writing on the rock walls of caves and coffin lids or carving on tablets. But it was with the advent of papyrus paper when the ability to record and transmit information exploded, allowing for an exchanging of ideas from the banks of the Nile throughout the Mediterranean—and the civilized world—for the first time in human history. The story of this material that was prized by both scholars and kings reveals how papyrus paper is more than a relic of our ancient past, but a key to understanding how ideas and information shaped humanity in the ancient and early modern world.
John Gaudet, a Fulbright Scholar to both India and Malaya, is a writer and practicing ecologist. His early research on the ancient aquatic plant, papyrus, funded in part by the National Geographic Society, took him to Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, and many other places in Africa. A trained biologist with a Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley, his writing has appeared in Science, Nature, Ecology, The Washington Post, Salon, and Huffington Post. He is an experienced lecturer and writer and author of PAPYRUS, THE PLANT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD as well as THE PHARAOH’S TREASURE.
This event is free to attend with no reservation required. Seats are available on a first come, first served basis.
Date and Time
Sunday Oct 21, 2018
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDTSunday, October 21, 2:00 pm
Fees/Admission
$0
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