appeared.
Anything with a smooth surface could be used as a writing surface. Ostraca were cheap, readily available and therefore frequently used for writings of messages, prescriptions, receipts, students’ exercises and notes. Pottery shards, limestone flakes, thin fragments of other stone types, etc., were also used for writing, but limestone shards were most common. Ostraca were typically small, covered with just a few words or a small picture drawn in ink.
The importance of ostraca for Egyptology is immense. The combination of their physical nature and the Egyptian climate has preserved texts, from the medical to the mundane, which in other cultures were lost. The many ostraca found at Deir el-Medina provide a brand new view into the medical workings of the New Kingdom. These ostraca have shown that, like other Egyptian communities, the workmen and inhabitants of Deir el-Medina received care through a combination of medical treatment, prayer, and magic.
From 1964–1971 Bryan Emery excavated at Saqqara in search of Imhotep's tomb. Instead, he uncovered the extensive catacombs of animal mummies. Apparently it was a pilgrim site, where as many as 1>1/>2 million ibis birds as well as cats, dogs, rams, and lions were buried. This 2nd-century BC site also contained extensive pottery debris. Emery's excavations uncovered the "Dream Ostraca", created by a scribe named Sebennytos. A convert to the god Thoth, he lived near Thoth's sanctuary at the entrance to the North Catacomb and worked as a "proto-therapist", advising and comforting clients. He transferred his divinely-inspired dreams onto ostraca. The Dream Ostraca contains 65 Demotic texts written on pottery and limestone.
In October 2008, Israeli archaeologist, Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discovered the earliest known Hebrew text. This text was written on an Ostracon shard. Garfinkel believes this shard dates to the time of King David from the Old Testament, about 3,000 years ago. The inscriptions are not deciphered yet. However, some words, such as king, slave and judge have been translated. The shard was found about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
Inscriptions on clay, wood, metal, and other hard materials, like papyri, are valuable especially as the literary sources for