• The Egyptians wrote or painted important works on papyrus.?¡ègyptisches papyrus gem?¡èlde image by Lucky Dragon from Fotolia.com
  
  Ancient cultures developed tools to write notes, keep accounts and draft formal letters and books. Unfortunately, many of the original texts and tools have not survived the ages, but archeologists have used the relics found in digs and other clues to put together an idea of the types of drafting tools created and how they were used.
  
  

Egyptian Drafting Tools

• Scribes from ancient Egypt used reeds and pigment, usually made of carbon black, to write hieroglyphic symbols on wooden boards, on leather, on pottery shards called ostraca and on papayrus. Inks were made by applying water to the pigment, which rested on a palette. The writer frayed a reed at one end to better absorb the ink and to make a more distinctive line. Short or temporary notes were written on the ostraca. The wooden boards were used (and sometimes reused) for calculations and account making. The papyrus, made from stems cut from the papyrus plant, were reserved for more formal and permanent writing tasks. Writers could join sheets of papyrus together and store them in papyrus rolls.
  
  

Mayan Drafting Tools

• Most of the Mayan texts done on “codexes” or Mayan style books made out of tree bark were lost to history. Only three were found intact. By looking at artwork, archeologists determined that the Mayan wrote their hieroglyphic script using animal-hair brushes and feather-quill pens. Writers used black ink for writing on the codexes, highlighting parts of the text with red. Scribes were honored members of the Mayan court. They often carried bundles of pens in their headdresses and were sometime buried with the tools of their trade. Inkpots made of shells and clay were found in the graves of high-ranking members of Mayan society.
  
  

Chinese Drafting Tools

• The ancient drafting tools of the Chinese were not the soft brushes that most of their known artwork brings to mind. In prehistoric times scribes wrote with tools made of bamboo, horns, animal bones and even wood. Black lead and dark soils served as a drawing medium. During the Neolithic Age, dating from 10,000 until 4,000 years ago, designs were drawn on pottery using sharp instruments. Pottery discovered in the later part of that period had different colors but scratches indicated that brushes were still not in common usage. Artists used rabbit tails or feathers to paint large areas. One archeological find at the Dadiwan dig site, located in Gansu, China included ground paintings done with black charcoal. This artwork dates back more than 5,000 years.