Archaeologists in Egypt Have Uncovered 13,000 Ancient Inscribed Pottery Fragments
Tax receipts from the 3rd century BC sit alongside zodiac texts from centuries later in a collection of 43,000 inscribed pottery fragments — the largest ever found at a single site in Egypt.
An Egyptian-German team recently unearthed about 13,000 of these fragments, known as ostraca, from the ancient city of Athribis, and the trove keeps growing.
“The ostraca show us an astonishing variety of everyday situations,” archaeologist Christian Leitz, director of the Egyptology department of the University of Tübingen in Germany, said in a statement.
What Are Ostraca and Where Is Athribis?
Ostraca are sherds or small pieces of pottery found in the ancient Mediterranean that were used as slates for writing, according to the Smithsonian Magazine.
The joint mission between the University of Tübingen and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has been recovering them at Athribis for nearly two decades, and more than 42,000 were found in just the past eight years.
Athribis is an ancient Egyptian city located about 10 kilometers west of the Nile River, opposite the ancient metropolis of Akhmim. It sits in what is now Nagaa El-Sheikh Hamad, roughly 7 kilometers west of the city of Sohag.
The city was part of the ninth administrative district of Upper Egypt and was historically a worship center for the lioness goddess Repyt, who formed a religious triad with the fertility god Min of Akhmim and the child deity Kolanthes.
The collection’s size puts Athribis ahead of Deir el-Medina — a former workers’ village in the Valley of the Kings and the second most productive site for ostraca in Egypt.
What the Ancient Inscriptions Reveal?
The oldest ostraca at Athribis are tax receipts written in Demotic script, dating to the 3rd century BC. The most recent are jar labels in Arabic from the 9th through 11th centuries AD.
“We find tax lists and deliveries, along with short notes about everyday activities, exercises by schoolchildren, religious texts, and priestly certificates attesting the quality of sacrificial animals,” Leitz said.
The collection includes administrative lists alongside delivery orders and accounts. Hymns, prayers and temple records also appear, along with more than 130 fragments carrying astrology and zodiac-themed texts.
Some fragments feature drawings or geometric designs rather than writing.
Demotic script dominates, appearing on 60 to 75% of the ostraca. Greek accounts for 15 to 30%. The remaining fragments include Hieratic (about 1.5%) and Hieroglyphic (about 0.25%). Coptic makes up about 0.2%, and Arabic about 0.1%.
“This everyday content gives us a direct insight into the lives of the people of Athribis and makes the ostraca an important source for a comprehensive social history of the region,” Leitz added.
What Researchers Hope to Learn Next
An international team called “Ostraca d’Athribis,” organized by Professor Sandra Lippert in Paris, has been analyzing the inscriptions and ceramics since the 2018–2019 excavation season.
Their goal is to better understand the economic, administrative and religious life of the ancient settlement.
“We expect to find many more ostraca. The high and ever-growing number of objects is encouraging, but it also presents us with challenges,” Leitz said.
Leitz hopes to “accelerate the digitization and cataloging of the ostraca by using AI systems,” according to his statement.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
