Ostracon
As Ostracon ( Greek τὸ ὄστρακον " clay shard", plural : ostraca ) are shards of pottery , more rarely, shells, egg shells or limestone shards called.
As a readily available, handy material, they were used instead of expensive papyrus throughout ancient times as writing material for notes, school assignments, accounts, receipts and short letters of all kinds. Written in ink or the text was scratched. Entire archives of this have been found (such as the Nikanor archive ). In ancient Greece , especially in Athens , they were also used as ballot papers in the proceedings of the “ shard court ” ( called ostracismos ).
This makes them a valuable source for understanding everyday life in ancient times (but also professional practices), and in the case of the broken court also for political history.
The Egyptian picture ostracon with mouse and cat at the dining table is known .
literature
- Erich Ziebarth : Ostrakon . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVIII, 2, Stuttgart 1942, Sp. 1685-1687.
- Charikleia Armoni, James MS Cowey, Dieter Hagedorn (eds.): The Greek Ostraka of the Heidelberg Papyrus Collection (= studies and texts on antiquity and Christianity. Volume 18 = publication from the Heidelberg papyrus collection. Volume 11). Winter, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8253-5087-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kamal Sabri Kolta: Coptic Medicine. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , pp. 779-781; here: p. 781 (including chronology of the ostraka and the medical paypri).