Academic Reading
The invention of paper
ABefore paper, people wrote on materials such as clay tablets, animal skins and papyrus, all of which were costly or awkward to use. The breakthrough came in China around 105 CE, when an official named Cai Lun is credited with developing a method of making paper from cheap plant fibres and rags soaked in water.
BThe technique spread slowly westward along trade routes, reaching the Islamic world and, centuries later, Europe. Cheap and easy to produce, paper transformed record-keeping and, once combined with printing, made books affordable to ordinary people for the first time.