Ostracon

[os-truh-kon]

An ostracon (Greek: όστρακον ostrakon, plural όστρακα ostraka) is a piece of pottery (or stone), usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use. The word is derived from Greek ostrakon, meaning a shell or a shard of pottery used as a voting ballot. It is a common error for the plural form ostraca to be used as the singular for ostracon.

In Ancient Greece, the voting public would write or scratch the name of a person in the shard of pottery. When the decision at hand was to banish or exile a certain member of society, citizen peers would cast their vote by writing the name of the person on the piece of pottery; the vote was counted and if unfavorable the person was put out of the city, thus giving rise to the term ostracism.

Egyptian limestone and potsherd ostraca

In Egypt, anything with a smooth surface could be used as a writing surface. Generally discarded material, ostraca were cheap, readily available and therefore frequently used for writings of an ephemeral nature such as messages, receipts, students exercises and notes: pottery shards, limestone flakes, thin fragments of other stone types, etc., but limestone sherds, being flaky and of a lighter color, were most common. Ostraca were typically small, covered with just a few words or a small picture drawn in ink; but the tomb of the craftsman Sennedjem at Deir el Medina contained an enormous ostracon inscribed with the Story of Sinuhe.

The importance of ostraca for Egyptology is immense. The combination of their physical nature and the Egyptian climate have preserved texts which in other cultures were lost, texts of a mundane nature, which are often better witnesses of everyday life than literary treatises preserved in libraries.

Saqqara Dream Ostraca

From 1964-1971, Bryan Emery excavated at Saqqara in search of Imhotep's tomb; instead, the extensive catacombs of animal mummies were uncovered. Apparently it was a pilgrim site, with as many as 1-1/2 million ibis birds interred (as well as cats, dogs, rams, and lions). This 2nd-century BC site contained extensive pottery debris from the site offerings of the pilgrims.

Emery's excavations uncovered the "Dream Ostraca", created by a scribe named Hor of Sebennytos. A convert to the god Thoth, he lived adjacent to Thoth's sanctuary at the entrance to the North Catacomb and worked as a "proto-therapist", advising and comforting clients. He transferred his divinely-inspired dreams onto ostraca. The Dream Ostraca are 65 Demotic texts written on pottery and limestone.

Biblical period ostraca

Famous ostraca for Biblical archaeology have been found at:

Additionally, the lots drawn at Masada are believed to have been ostraca, and some potsherds resembling the lots have been found.

New Testament ostraca

Some Christian texts are preserved upon ostraca. In the late 19th century, 20 ostraca were found in Upper Egypt , probably from the 7th century, written in Greek and Coptic.

The ostraca are of different sizes and shapes. The more extant is Luke 22:40-71, which runs over 10 pieces. The ostraca contain from 2 to 9 verses each, and cover ; Mark 5:40-41 (Mark 9:3); Mark 9:17-18, Mark 9:22; Mark 15:21; Luke 12:13-16; Luke 22:40-71; John 1:1-9; John 1:14-17; John 18:19-25; John 19:15-17. There is one ostracon with the inscription "St. Peter the evangelist," perhaps an allusion to the Gospel of Peter.

A Coptic Sa'idic ostracon preserves the Pericope Adulterae found in John 7:53-8:1, which is otherwise omitted in the Sa'idic New Testament. A Christian hymn to Mary, similar to the canticles of Luke, and some Christian letters have also been found.

Christian ostraka

Inscriptions on clay, wood, metal, and other hard materials, like papyri, are valuable especially as the literary sources for early Christianity. They are found chiefly in Oriental countries, especially Egypt. The greatest number are pieces of clay or scraps of pots inscribed with colors or ink. The oldest Christian ostraka, like the papyri, are Greek and date from the fifth century; next come the Coptic and Arabian ostraka. Some of the texts not yet deciphered include several Nubian ostraka in a language spoken in the old Christian negro-kingdoms in the vicinity of Aloa on the Blue Nile. In these inscriptions Greek letters are used, with some other signs. As to contents, ostraka are either profane or ecclesiastical. Potsherds were often used for correspondence in place of the less durable papyrus; occasionally the recipient wrote the answer on the back of the potsherd. Ostraka were also used for mercantile purposes, as bills, receipts, etc. C. M. Kaufmann and J. C. Ewald Falls, while excavating the town of Menas in the Libyan desert, discovered ostraka of this class—the oldest Christian potsherds in the Greek language (fifth century)—and H. J. Bell and F. G. Kenyon of the British Museum deciphered them. They refer to the vine-culture of the sanctuaries of Menas and represent, for the most part, short vouchers for money or provisions. The currency is based upon gold solidi issued by Constantine; the date is reckoned by the year of indiction. Of historical interest is the assistance given to invalid workmen, the employment of the lower clergy, the manner of provisioning the workmen, and especially the statements about the harvest periods in the Libyan district. The series of Coptic ostraka which deals with the clergy and the monasteries in the Nile valley is particularly extensive. They refer to all phases of administration and popular life.

The ecclesiastical ostraka, in a narrow sense, contain Biblical citations from the New Testament, prayers, extracts from the synaxaria (lives of the saints), and are partly of a liturgic character. Greek, which was then the language of the Church, is much used, with the Coptic. Among the samples published by W.E. Crum, a fine judge of Coptic dialects, there is a local confession of faith from the sixth century, besides the Preface and Sanctus of the Mass, prayers from the Liturgy of St. Basil and of St. Mark, a part of the didascalia of Schenûte of Athribis, a Greek confession, and an excommunication, also in Greek. Particularly remarkable are those ostraka which contain liturgical songs. They represent our present song-books for which purpose rolls of papyrus were less suited than the more durable potsherds; in some cases wooden books were used. Among the pieces translated by Crum we find petitions for ordination in which the petitioner promises to learn by heart one of the Gospels, and a reference to an ancient abstinence movement, against which is directed a decree that the consecration-wine should be pure or at least three-fourths pure.

References

Sources

Parkinson, Richard. Cracking Codes, the Rosetta Stone, and Decipherment, Richard Parkinson, with W. Diffie, M. Fischer, and R.S. Simpson, (University of California Press), c. 1999.
Reeves, Nicholas. Ancient Egypt, The Great Discoveries, A Year-by-Year Chronicle, Nicholas Reeves, (Thames and Hudson, London), c 2000. (Specifically, "1964-71: The Sacred Animal Necropolis, Saqqara"; and "1964-65: A Statue Finds Its Face".)