The discovery of the papyrus plant, and its excellence as a writing medium, was an essential requirement for the translation of the emerging Greek culture from an oral to a written form: papyrus grew abundantly in the Nile delta, and the techniques of splitting the reed stalks and weaving them together as writing sheets were easily mastered. Papyrus became the pre-eminent writing medium of the ancient world, exported from Egypt to Greece and later Rome, and made possible the extraordinary experiment in knowledge acquisition that became the library at Alexandria.

Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile Hist…, loc. 53