When was paper invented?

Tradition credits Cai Lun, an official at the Han dynasty court, with presenting a method of making paper to the emperor in AD 105, using tree bark, hemp, rags and old fishing nets. However, archaeologists have found older paper fragments in China dating to the 2nd century BC, so Cai Lun probably refined and standardised an existing process. Papermaking spread to the Islamic world in the 8th century, with Samarkand becoming an early centre. It reached Europe through Spain around the 12th century. Egyptian papyrus, although older, is not true paper, because it is made from pressed strips of plant rather than pulped fibres.