Archaeology Argot: Ostracon

ZEV RADOVAN/BIBLELANDPICTURES, VIA ALAMY

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 discarded. In both the classical and Near Eastern worlds, such potsherds were cheap and readily available media for writing short messages, usually with reed pen and ink. For practical reasons, most ostraca were inscribed on the outer side, which is convex and smoother. In size, they usually do not exceed 4 inches so as to fit comfortably in one’s hand.

Most surviving ostraca contain short texts of personal or administrative character. Among these ephemeral types of documents are letters, private notes, scribal exercises, receipts, lists, orders, and drafts of or excerpts from larger documents. Ironically, such mundane writings largely survived from antiquity, while longer and more important documents on papyrus or parchment mostly decayed.

In ancient Israel, groups of ostraca were found at Arad, Samaria, and Lachish, among other sites. The letter shown here, dated to around 587 BCE, comes from Lachish and was written by one Hoshayahu to Yaush, the city’s military commander. Trying to exculpate himself from an undisclosed accusation, Hoshayahu addresses his superior: “Who is your servant but a dog, that my lord should remember his servant?”