06. Price list on potsherd
Second-century ostracon
Elephantine, Egypt, (ca.) 200-300
Ostraca were earthenware potsherd fragments commonly used as a writing surface, since they were cheap, plentiful, and --at least in their fragmentary form-- sturdy. Houghton Library has 32 of them from Elephantine and Syene (Aswān) at the First Cataract of the Nile River, comprising accounts, receipts, and poll taxes in the Greek, Coptic and Demotic languages.
This ostracon, not quite two inches square, lists various items, including a warp and a woof, purple cloth, and sums in drachmas and obols, possibly the prices paid for them.
Published as: O.Harv. 9. by Gerald M. Browne, "Ostraca Harvardiana," Harvard studies in classical philology 76 (1972): 245-258.
Greek. Ostracon.
Houghton Library. MS Ostraca 3152 .
HOLLIS Catalog: 009796922