13,000 new ostraca found at Sohag brings total to 43,000 at ancient Akhmim. An Egyptian-German archaeological team found 13,000 ostraca at Sohag, the site of the ancient city of Akhmim in Upper Egypt This brings the total to 43,000 ostraca at the site The oldest ostraca are from the 3rd century BCE during Macedonian rule of Egypt
Incredible archive discovered! An Egyptian-German team found 13,000 more ostraca at Sohag, bringing the total to 43,000 at the ancient city of Athribis. These pottery fragments span over a thousand years from the 3rd century BCE through the 10th-11th century CE, written primarily in demotic and Greek. They contain everyday records: letters, grocery lists, tax payments, delivery orders, and student writing exercises. An international team called Ostricha Akhmim in Paris is working to catalog and translate this massive corpus
Key Facts
- An Egyptian-German archaeological team found 13,000 ostraca at Sohag, the site of the ancient city of Akhmim in Upper Egypt
- This brings the total to 43,000 ostraca at the site
- The oldest ostraca are from the 3rd century BCE during Macedonian rule of Egypt
- The latest ostraca date to around the 10th or 11th century during early Arab rule, spanning over a thousand years
- The ostraca are written in several scripts and languages, with the majority in demotic, a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs
- Greek is the next most common language
- An international group of specialists called Ostricha Akhmim in Paris is cataloging and translating them
- They contain letters, grocery lists, notes, tax payments, delivery orders, and student writing exercises
Related site: Coptic Red Monastery - St. Pishay Monastery at Sohag — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: 10 Mind-Blowing Ancient Inscriptions Unveiled (2025-2026) by World of Antiquity