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
13,000 new ostraca found at Sohag brings total to 43,000 at ancient Akhmim
Site mentioned
📍 Coptic Red Monastery - St. Pishay Monastery at Sohag🌍 Show on the globe
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
Sources
Archaeologists Dig Up 13000 Ancient Messages in Egyptmiamiherald.com
... 43,000 inscribed pottery fragments — the largest ever found at a single site in Egypt. An Egyptian-German team recently unearthed about 13,000 ...
13,000 Ancient Messages Found on Pottery Sherds in Egyptkansascity.com
The find brings the total number of ostraca discovered at the site to about 43,000 ... “We expect to find many more ostraca. The high and ...
The discovery of 13,000 ostraca near the Temple of Atribes in Sohag ...egyptfwd.org
A few days ago, the joint Egyptian-German archaeological mission succeeded in discovering more than 13,000 ostraca dating back to the ...
Dig in Egypt Yields 43000 Ancient Inscribed Pottery Piecesstar-telegram.com
An Egyptian-German archaeological team has uncovered approximately 13,000 inscribed pottery fragments at the ancient site of Athribis, ...
Thousands of Ostracons Unearthed in Egypt - Archaeology Magazinearchaeology.org
SOHAG, EGYPT—According to an Ahram Online report, some 13,000 ostraca, or inscribed fragments of pottery, have been recovered at the site of ...
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