|
An ostracon (Greek: ὄστρακον ostrakon, plural ὄστρακα 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. Image File history File linksMetadata AGMA_Ostrakon_Pericles. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata AGMA_Ostrakon_Pericles. ...
Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC - 440s BC - 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC Years: 449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC - 444 BC - 443 BC 442 BC...
Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC - 440s BC - 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC Years: 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC 444 BC - 443 BC - 442 BC 441 BC...
The Agora of Athens today. ...
Chinese vase A vase with a sunflower pattern The vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. ...
Earthenware is a particularly common type of ceramic material and is used extensively for tableware and decorative objects. ...
Archaeology, archeology, or archology (from the Greek words αÏχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...
Shard, also called sherd or potsherd, is a term for broken pieces of pottery or glass, often used in archaeology. ...
It has been suggested that ballot be merged into this article or section. ...
A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. ...
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. The ancient Greek world circa 550 BC Ancient Greece is the period in Greek history which lasted for around one thousand years and ended with the rise of Christianity. ...
Ostracism was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which a prominent citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. ...
Egyptian limestone ostraca In Egypt, limestone quarries are numerous, though they were used extensively and rendered less productive. The quarrymen were also part of the group of "tomb inscribers" at Deir el Medina (adjacent to the Valley of the Kings), and Amarna period City Akhetaten. They were semi-educated, talented, and productive. In Egypt, everything was used for ostraca: pottery shards, limestone, other stone types, etc., but limestone shards, being flaky and of a lighter color, were a common type. Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ...
Deir al-Madinah is the Arabic name of an Ancient Egyptian village that was home to the artisans who built the temples and tombs ordered by the pharaohs and other dignitaries during the New Kingdom period (18th to 20th dynasties). ...
View over the East Valley The Valley of the Kings, or Wadi el-Muluk (وادي الملوك) in Arabic, is a valley in Egypt where tombs were built for the Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom, the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. ...
Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna) is the name given to an extensive archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (c. ...
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 found extensive pottery debris from the site offerings of the pilgrims. Saqqara (Arabic: سقارة) is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, featuring the worlds oldest standing step pyramid. ...
Statuette of Imhotep in the Louvre Imhotep (sometimes spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, or Ii-em-Hotep, Egyptian ) is the first architect and physician known by name in written history. ...
Genera Threskiornis Pseudibis Thaumatibis Geronticus Nipponia Bostrychia Theristicus Cercibis Mesembrinibis Phimosus Eudocimus Plegadis Lophotibis Ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae. ...
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. (See Reeves.) Thoth (Ramesseum, Luxor) In Egyptian mythology, Thoth (also spelled Thot or Thout), pronounced Toe-th, is the Greek name given to Djehuty (also spelt Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, Tetu) - the original pronunciation of his name is disputed, and may have been approximately Tee-HOW-ti -, who was originally the deification...
Demotic script on a replica of the Rosetta stone. ...
Biblical period ostraca Famous ostraca for Biblical archaeology have been found at: Biblical archaeology involves the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods and descriptions in the Bible. ...
Additionally, the lots drawn at Masada are believed to have been ostraca, and some potsherds resembling the lots have been found. Arad (Hebrew: ערד) is a modern city in southern Israel, on the border of the Judean Desert, 25 km west of the Dead Sea and 45 km east of Beer-Sheva, near the famous Masada (Metzada), in the South District of Israel. ...
Tel Arad is an ancient Canaanite city southwest of the Dead Sea, near the modern city of Arad, Israel. ...
Lachish was a town located in the Shephelah, or maritime plain of Palestine (Joshua 10:3, 5; 12:11). ...
It has been suggested that Sebastia, Middle East be merged into this article or section. ...
This article is about the Judean fortress. ...
New Testament Ostraca Some Christian texts are preserved upon ostraca. In the late 19th century were found in Upper Egypt 20 ostraca, probably from the 7th century, written in Greek and Coptic. Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ...
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 Matthew 27:31–32; 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 in allusion to the Gospel of Peter. The Gospel of Luke is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ...
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. The Pericope Adulteræ (pur-IC-op-ee uh-DUL-ter-igh), meaning the passage of the adulterous woman in Latin, is the name traditionally given to verses 7:53–8:11 of the Gospel of John, which is usually referred to in English as the woman taken in adultery...
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 Blue Nile Blue Nile Falls in Ethiopia The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. ...
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. Synaxarium, Synaxarion, Synexarium, Synexarion, pl. ...
The Liturgy of Saint Basil, or in full Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, is a term for several Oriental liturgies, or at least several anaphoras, whch have been attributed to the great St. ...
Didascalia Apostolorum (or just Didascalia) is the tile of a treatise which pretends to have been written by the Apostles at the time of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), but is really a composition of the third century. ...
Schenute (also Sch(e)nudi) was a Coptic abbot. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
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.
See also Ostracism was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which a prominent citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. ...
Sources and references (incomplete) - This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia. [1]
- 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".)
The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by The Encyclopedia Press. ...
External links |
Feeds |
Contact