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Originally Posted by GraceKrispy
Oh no! *That's* what parchment is??? Oh dear, and here I thought it was made from bark or something.
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You're conflating it with papyrus.
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So every time they made a little book, they ate mutton stew for dinner?
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One presumes they used the rest of the sheep for something. But sheep are similar to pigs, where the saying is "You can use every part of the pig but the squeal". It's a fair bet that sheep whose skins became parchment had already had a productive life producing wool before becoming parchment.
The material is the reason why diplomas are called "sheepskins", as that was the traditional material they were inscribed on. For that matter, the traditional Torah scrolls encased in mezuzahs were parchment, and I've seen hairsplitting over whether a mezuzah containing a paper Torah scroll is proper. (It appears to be accepted among most Jews simply because proper parchment is expensive and harder to find.)
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Dennis