Using Ostraca in the Ancient World : : new discoveries and methodologies / / edited by Clementina Caputo and Julia Lougovaya.

• Superior document: Materiale Textkulturen ; 32
• Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• Author: Caputo, Clementina; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• HerausgeberIn: Caputo, Clementina,; Lougovaya, Julia,
• MitwirkendeR: Bülow-Jacobsen, Adam,; Haring, B. J. J.,; Redon, Bérangère,; Cromwell, Jennifer,; Schentuleit, Maren,; Folmer, M. L.,; Chaufray, Marie-Pierre, 1980-,; Davoli, Paola,; Lippert, Sandra Luisa,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter,, [2020]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021; 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Materiale Textkulturen ; 32.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (vi, 245 pages) :; illustrations (chiefly colour); digital file(s).
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Throughout Egypt’s long history, pottery sherds and flakes of limestone were commonly used for drawings and short-form texts in a number of languages. These objects are conventionally called ostraca, and thousands of them have been and continue to be discovered. This volume highlights some of the methodologies that have been developed for analyzing the archaeological contexts, material aspects, and textual peculiarities of ostraca.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- I. Documentation and Interpretation of Ostraca as Archaeological Objects -- Papyri and Ostraca as Archaeological Objects: The Importance of Context -- Pottery Sherds for Writing: An Overview of the Practice -- Photography of Papyri and Ostraca -- II. Cultural Contexts and Practices -- The Survival of Pharaonic Ostraca: Coincidence or Meaningful Patterns? -- Greek Literary Ostraca Revisited -- III. Ostraca in Context: Case Studies -- Hi Aḥuṭab: Aramaic Letter Ostraca from Elephantine -- Ostraca and Tituli Picti of Samut North and Bi’r Samut (Eastern Desert of Egypt): Some Reflections on Find Location -- Demotic Ostraca and Their Use in Egyptian Temple Context from the Greco-Roman Period: Soknopaiou Nesos and Hut-Repit -- “Forgive Me, Because I Could Not Find Papyrus”: The Use and Distribution of Ostraca in Late Antique Western Thebes -- Contributors -- Indices