Columbia University Ostrakon Collection, 150 BCE -800 CE

Summary Information

Abstract

Ostraca are pottery fragments and flakes of limestone with writing in ink. "Ostraka" is the plural; "ostrakon" is a single item; the word can also be spelled with a "c" as in ostraca and ostracon. Some contain Greek, but the majority is Coptic, and they range in date from the sixth to the seventh century CE. They include about one hundred school exercises (especially abecedaries), private letters, religious texts, receipts, etc. With few exceptions, the ostraka come from monasteries in Upper Egypt around Luxor. Columbia Libraries Ostraka range in date from 150 BCE to the ninth century CE; the majority is dated 6th – 7th century CE. Some of the ostraka come from early gifts and from Egypt Exploration Society distribution of Oxyrhynchos ostraka, but most of the ostraca were acquired at the behest of Professor A. Arthur Schiller in two lots from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1958 and 1961. They come largely from the unpublished material deriving from the Museum's excavations at Deir el Bahri and at the Monastery of Epiphanius, though some were purchases by and gifts to the MMA. Many of these Coptic ostraka are very fragmentary and little can be said about their contents. In 1991, 10 ostraca found near the ancient Mons Porphyites, in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, in Egypt, were donated by Roger Bagnall and added to the collection.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library