CHINA’S claim to have invented paper was strengthened yesterday when archaeologists announced a discovery that suggests it was in use at least 100 years earlier than thought.

A scrap of paper made from linen fibre was found by archaeologists picking through an ancient rubbish tip at the Yumen Pass, the gate between China and Central Asia.

Measuring only 1.6sq in, it is believed to have been made in 8BC, or 113 years earlier than the first known paper. Fu Licheng, the curator of the Dunhuang Museum, said: “This is very important evidence to show that paper was invented in China.”

Chinese history records that paper was invented in AD 105 when Cai Lun, a eunuch and minor courtier, pounded together mulberry tree bark, cloth and fishing nets — centuries before the paper-making industry developed in the rest of the world. However, the discovery of paper-like material made from silk in northwest China has fuelled debate in recent years that the invention could have been made two centuries before Cai Lun was at work.

However, Mr Fu said that the paper found at the Yumen Pass was a more developed material than the disputed silk-based substance. He told The Times: “The paper found here is definitely paper and the skill to make it seems quite mature. This shows that 2,000 years ago the local civilisation was well developed.”

Archaeologists had found several pieces of paper in the 2,000-year-old rubbish tip as they were carrying out restoration work on a garrison in use during the Western Han dynasty [206BC-AD25]. But only one scrap contained writing.

Mr Fu said that more than 20 characters on the paper had been identified and that it was believed to be a letter, although there were too few words to make out the meaning. “We can tell it’s a sentence, but we need more time for analysis.”

The find showed that China had been experimenting with papermaking long before Cai Lun’s invention. However, Mr Fu said that Cai Lun’s importance was undiminished. “Cai Lun’s contribution was to improve this skill systematically and scientifically, fixing a recipe for papermaking.”

According to legend, Cai Lun was at first mocked for his invention, so he feigned death and had himelf buried alive in a coffin with a bamboo breathing tube. Friends then burnt paper above the tube and he sprang out of the ground, impressing onlookers about the power of paper. He was rewarded with a title but became involved in political intrigue, was imprisoned and committed suicide. China exported his invention but kept its manufacture a secret. In AD751 the Turks defeated China’s armies in battle and captured Chinese papermakers who were taken to Samarkand.

The first Arab paper industry was founded in Baghdad in AD793 and they, too, kept the process a secret. The invention did not reach Europe until about the 12th century.

Claims to fame

Golf Chiuwan, a precursor to golf, recorded 500 years before it reached the West

Sit-down toilet Stone object with running water, seat and armrest; 2,000 years old

Pizza A claim to have invented it was ridiculed by a New York judge who said they did not eat cheese

Pasta A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed, proving they were eating them 2,000 years before the Italians

Wheelbarrow China has descriptions of them 1,000 years before Europe

Compass Used on ships reaching Australia

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