The Samaria Ostraca are 102 ostraca found in 1910 in excavations in ancient Samaria led by George Andrew Reisner of the Harvard Semitic Museum. These ostraca were found in the treasury of the palace of Ahab, king of Israel, and probably date about his period, 850–750 BC. Authored by royal scribes, the ostraca primarily record food deliveries, serving an archival function.
Sketch of a selection of ostraca
Diagram of the excavation
An ostracon is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. Usually these are considered to have been broken off before the writing was added; ancient people used the cheap, plentiful, and durable broken pieces of pottery around them as a convenient medium to write on for a wide variety of purposes, mostly very short inscriptions, but in some cases very long.
Ostrakon inscribed with "Kimon [son] of Miltiades", for Cimon, an Athenian statesman.
Ostrakon of Megacles, son of Hippocrates (inscription: ΜΕΓΑΚΛΕΣ ΗΙΠΠΟΚΡΑΤΟΣ), 487 BC. On display in the Ancient Agora Museum in Athens, housed in the Stoa of Attalus
Ancient Greek ostraca voting for the ostracization of Themistocles in 482 BC
One of four official letters to vizier Khay copied onto a limestone ostracon, in Egyptian Hieratic