有人认为莎草纸是最早的纸，而中国造纸术并不算四大「发明」，这样的说法对不对？原因是什么？

以下是主观色彩极强的原问题： 早在五千年前，在中国的纸出现之前三千年前，古埃及人就已经发明了最古老的纸，称之为纸莎草纸（Papyrus），也称纸草纸，英文中纸（paper）这个单词就是来源于拉丁文 papyrus（纸莎草纸），可见这种纸在西方古代应用的广泛和悠久。

使用长达三千年之久。

公元 10 世纪后才逐渐停止使用。

Webster 大辞典上讲述纸的历史就是从纸草纸开始叙述的：History A form of paper called papyrus, made from reedss, was made as early as 3000 BC in ancient Egypt, and then in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. ——可见，国际上认为纸草纸是最早的纸。

Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE.[3][not in citation given][4] The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was exc***ated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. These documents date from c. 2560–2550 BCE (end of the reign of Khufu).[3] The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza.[5] In the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins.[6] Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world, it became***mon to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices.。