Ostracon
Broken pottery sherds used as writing surfaces in ancient times.
An ostracon (plural ostraca) is a piece of pottery, usually a broken sherd from a vase or other earthenware vessel, or a small piece of stone, used as a writing surface. In archaeological and epigraphical contexts, ostraca are valued for the short inscriptions scratched or inked onto them, serving as cheap, plentiful, and durable writing media for a wide variety of ephemeral purposes, from messages and receipts to students' exercises and magical spells.
- notable example
- Thousands of ostraca from Deir el-Medina, including administrative records, letters, and literary texts
- key archaeological site
- Deir el-Medina (thousands of ostraca found)
Lore & Background
Ostraca were typically small, covered with just a few words or a small picture drawn in ink. In Classical Athens, citizens used pottery shards to vote on the banishment of a member of society, giving rise to the term ostracism. Scholars have suggested that shards from a vote may have been reused for anal hygiene, possibly to curse the exiled individual by soiling their name. In Egypt, limestone sherds were most common due to their flaky and lighter color. Deir el-Medina has yielded thousands of ostraca, providing a wealth of information about daily life, administration, and literature in ancient Egypt.
Reader's Guide
Ostraca are of immense importance for understanding everyday life in ancient societies, particularly in Egypt, where the combination of their physical nature and the climate preserved texts that would otherwise have been lost. The 91 ostraca found at Deir el-Medina provide a deeply compelling view into the New Kingdom, including medical and documentary records, details on water provision, and economic transactions. They reveal a division between a trained physician and a scorpion charmer, and show that magical spells were widely circulated among workmen while written medical texts were rarer. The ostraca also document attempts to dig a well, failed attempts that ended with the well used as a dump where hundreds more ostraca were found. In economics, ostraca detail trades where goods were exchanged based on worth and need, such as an ox valued at 120 Deben traded for items totaling 130 Deben. The Dream Ostraca from Saqqara, created by a scribe named Hor of Sebennytos, are 65 Demotic texts written on pottery and limestone, recording divinely inspired dreams. For Biblical archaeology, ostraca from sites like Arad, Lachish, and the Elah Fortress have yielded early Hebrew texts, including what is believed to be the earliest known Hebrew text, dating to about 3,000 years ago.
Did You Know?
- In Classical Athens, citizens wrote the name of a person to be exiled on a pottery shard, a practice that gave rise to the term ostracism.
- The Story of Sinuhe is known from multiple ostraca, including one from the tomb of Sennedjem at Deir el-Medina.
- At Deir el-Medina, a failed attempt to dig a well reached approximately 50 meters deep and was later used as a dump where hundreds of ostraca were found.
- The Dream Ostraca from Saqqara consist of approximately 65 Demotic and hieratic texts written on pottery and limestone by a scribe named Hor of Sebennytos.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is an ostracon?
An ostracon is a broken piece of pottery or a small slab of stone that ancient Egyptians repurposed as a quick, low-cost writing surface. Rather than being a single crafted object, it is essentially a discarded sherd or limestone flake that someone scratched or inked a short text onto.
What kind of things did Egyptians actually write on ostraca?
People used them for everyday ephemeral tasks like sending short messages, recording grain receipts, practicing handwriting, or jotting down magical spells. They were the sticky notes of the ancient world—cheap, abundant, and perfect for anything that didn't deserve expensive papyrus.
Where did archaeologists find the most ostraca?
Deir el-Medina, the workers' village that built the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, has yielded around 91 ostraca. The site is a goldmine because the community there generated tons of casual notes, school exercises, and personal correspondence over many centuries.
Is there a famous literary text preserved on an ostracon?
Yes—the narrative of Sinuhe, one of the oldest known Egyptian literary works, survives on a sherd recovered from the tomb of the scribe Sennedjem at Deir el-Medina. It shows that even a 'throwaway' piece of pottery could preserve a major cultural text.
How does an ostracon compare to papyrus as a writing medium?
Papyrus was a premium, labor-intensive material reserved for formal documents and literature, while an ostracon was essentially free since it was just a broken pot or a chip of limestone. Ostraca were also far more durable in dry conditions, which is why so many survive where papyrus texts have crumbled away.
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