Ostraca

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fragment of pottery, especially one used in ancient times for writing, often for inscribing votes or other public records
2. Small, flat pieces of clay or ceramic utilized in antiquity, primarily for recording information such as votes or texts
3. Shards of earthenware employed in various historical contexts, particularly for administrative purposes like documenting decisions or names

Etymology: Ostraca is the plural of "ostracon", and the singular comes straight from Ancient Greek "óstrakon", meaning a potsherd or broken piece of pottery. The Greek word was already used for shards of clay vessels, and those fragments mattered to later scholars because people wrote on them. Greeks in Athens, for instance, scratched names on broken pottery when voting to exile a citizen, which is the origin of the word "ostracism". The English usage follows the Greek closely. Archaeologists apply "ostraca" to any inscribed or painted fragment of pottery, including texts written in ink or charcoal on sherds rather than carved into stone. Because such fragments were cheap and plentiful, they preserve everyday documents like receipts, letters and tax records that more durable materials rarely kept.