Through comparative study, the time of Fangmatan Han Tomb should be from the late Qin Dynasty to the early Western Han Dynasty, so the lower limit of paper map should be the early Western Han Dynasty at the latest. The surface of paper is flat, smooth and dense, and there are small fiber residues on the surface, which shows that the papermaking technology is relatively primitive. Its raw material is hemp, that is, hemp paper in the early Western Han Dynasty. There are mountains, rivers, cliffs and roads painted on paper, which is the earliest paper-drawn map in the world.
Extended data:
Cai Lun's argument about papermaking.
1957, Baqiao Paper was unearthed from Baqiao Tomb in the eastern suburb of Xi. Later, in 1973, "Juyan Paper" was discovered in the Jinguan site of Han Dynasty in Juyan, Gansu. 1978 The "Fufeng Paper" of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed in the cellar of Zhongyan Village in Fufeng, Shaanxi Province. 1979 Maquanwan paper unearthed in Dunhuang.
The appearance of these new archaeological materials has aroused different opinions from archaeology, papermaking and history. Some of them refused to recognize the new materials, while others thought that China had invented papermaking as early as the early Western Han Dynasty, and the paper made at that time could be used for writing and painting, two or three hundred years earlier than Cai Lun.
It can be inferred that Cai Lun was a reformer of papermaking, not an inventor. Cai Lun only expanded the source of raw materials for papermaking, made full use of waste materials such as bark, rags, hemp heads and fishing nets, and reduced the cost of paper, especially using bark as the precursor of pulp paper, which opened up a broad road for the development of papermaking.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Paper Map of Tianshui Fangmatan in Western Han Dynasty
China News Network-Was paper invented by Cai Lun?