The original meaning of the Greek word ostracon (pl. ostraca) is “animal shell”—think turtles, snails, or clams. This meaning was soon transferred to denote any hard convex object, including pottery sherds. Ancient Athenians famously used such fragments as ballots in their juridical practice of ostracism (literally, “judgment by sherds”), in which citizens voted to banish individuals deemed too powerful or influential and hence dangerous to Athenian democracy. Within archaeology, ostracon denotes a particular type of artifact—an inscribed potsherd. In the strict sense, an ostracon is a potsherd that was inscribed after the original ceramic vessel was broken and its pieces […]
