Caution, not to take Agback's statement for granted. What he's said is quite true, must it must be precised that dry (ie not damp) papyrus will still rot in any environment with an atmospheric humidity above Egypt's ! Egypt is not only dry, bur Hot-dessicating(-ly) dry ! It is so hot and so dry that many of the mushrooms and bacteria involved in rotting do not live there.
But even in Egypt, very few of the total corpus of papyri remains.
This is the reason why there is so much non-monumental scriptures found of Mesopotamia (records, hostories, accounts, contracts) (there were inscribed on dry clay tablets taht eventually were cooked during arsons (which happened any time there was a war, since it was a culture based on heavy city-centralization)), whereas the majority of the egyptian corpus is monumental, religious or propagandal writing. (With, of course, the exceptions Agback's mentionned)
The same for many parts of the antic world (the main scribing material has been papyrus in all the mediterranean area until the importation of paper in the Arabo-Turkish world in the 12th century).
In the other hand, the use of parchment and velum allowed for better conservation of scriptures. But it is more a Frankish custom, and was disseminated in europe and into Maghreb from this point.
Hav,'t ENWorld Messageboards become very scientifc of lately ? ;°)
As for Family Names, what has been said prevously is true until the end of Alexander's Reign, and the advent of the Diadokoi (his generals who partook the remnants of his empire). With this, the hellenic area became sort of feodal, and your family became important (just as in Rome), and the names became like what it is in modern-Russia ... and yes it comes from the greeks (from the Byzantian Era), that is : Personal Name - Father Name (Genitive, as in 'son of'), and Familly name. It was, however, unwidespread (there was not so much room for many prestigious families, as the prestige came from military prowess and ranking in a single army of a single (even if huge) campaign, until the Romans colonized the former Macedonian Empire in the end of the 2nd century BC, and widespread their own custom (Family name was important for thems since they should be able to remlate to one of the fouonding family of rome (the 100 gens).
The most famous greek family name of the Hellenistic period should be Ptolemeus, as, you noticed it already, it has been used my many a ruler of Egypt.
