Coptic Ostraca

In the spring and fall of 1900, the Hearst-Reisner expedition of the University of California excavated the site of Deir el-Ballas, across the Nile from Coptos.  Best known of the finds are the remains of two mud-brick palaces dating to the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Dynasties, when this strategically significant spot (located at the terminus of one route through the Western Desert and close to the gold mines, quarries, and Red Sea trade accessible through the Wadi Hammamat) apparently served as a military command center for Theban campaigns against the Hyksos.  After the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty, however, there is little sign of occupation at Deir el-Ballas until it was settled in Roman and Byzantine times, as witnessed by evidence from the site of the North Palace:  the remains of houses and three Christian chapels, Roman and Coptic pottery, Byzantine coins, fragments of a decorated leather book, and a number of Coptic burials.
Among the finds recorded by F.W. Green in his field notes are Coptic ostraca originating from two findspots on the northern kôm.  The ceramic ostraca, some sixty-five in number, now form part of the Egyptian collection of the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology.  This paper will present the results of a preliminary study of these hitherto neglected documents.

Compte rendu de Anne Boud’hors, James Clackson, Catherine Louis & Petra M. Sijpesteijn (éd.), Monastic Estates in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt : Ostraca, Papyri, and Studies in Honour of Sarah Clackson, American Society of Papyrologists (2009), dans Journal of Coptic Studies 13 (2011), p. 220-226

Depuis le début du xxe siècle, plusieurs savants ont remarqué que la céramique des reçus de taxe thébains du VIIIe siècle est très différente de celle des ostraca coptes contemporains. L’article propose de reconnaître dans ces tessons des fragments d’amphores du Nouvel Empire (groupe « Marl D » dans le Système de Vienne).

This paper presents three Coptic potsherds kept in the Cairo Egyptian Museum-as part of a collection of Coptic ostraca bearing the special registration number 18953. The first ostracon represents a private letter, the sender's name is missing here suggested to be Joseph and the recipient seems to be a monk his name is Mosses; this letter was sent concerning giving dates to a shepherd called Anaias. The second and the third ostraca are parts from agreement for repayment a loan and perhaps they represent one text. In the second potsherd, the names of debtor and creditor are missing in the text, the loan was one (or more) of golden coin called Tremis. The repayment will be in something lost in the text perhaps money or cereals. The repayment will be with interest. The third potsherd represents the assent formula of an agreement for repayment a loan (perhaps represents the end of the last text), it represents the signature of the debtor who is a deacon and calledPashtosh.