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PotsherdInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
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Archaeological Discoveries. Potsherds, or pieces of pottery, are the most numerous items found by archaeologists during excavations of ancient sites. In the past, a broken piece of pottery might be used for such things as raking ashes or dipping water. (Isa 30:14) But especially were potsherds employed as inexpensive writing materials in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere in the ancient Middle East. For instance, earthenware fragments were used for the well-known Lachish Letters, which repeatedly contain the divine name, Jehovah, in Tetragrammaton form (YHWH). In Egypt, archaeologists have found numerous pieces of limestone and earthenware fragments on which there appear drawings and inscriptions written in ink (generally in cursive hieroglyphic script), many said to date from about the 16th to the 11th centuries B.C.E. and some thus possibly reaching back to the days of Moses and of Israel’s bondage in Egypt. Certain of these inscribed fragments consist of stories, poems, hymns, and the like, some of which were probably written as school lessons. Earthenware fragments apparently were used as writing material by people generally much as memo pads and other pieces of paper are today, to record accounts, sales, marriage contracts, lawsuits, and many other matters.
More than 60 ostraca inscribed with ink in Paleo-Hebrew script were discovered in the ruins of the royal palace in Samaria. They seem to be records of vineyard production, many possibly dating from the time of Jeroboam II. They give names of places and persons, the latter including some compound forms involving the use of the names Baal, El, and Jehovah.
Greek ostraca found in Egypt include various types of documents but principally tax receipts. They give some insight into the Greek language as spoken by the common people of that land during Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine times, and so they are of some use in studies of the Koine used by writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Twenty Greek ostraca found in Upper Egypt were inscribed with portions of the four Gospels, these probably dating from the seventh century C.E.
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PotterInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
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Broken pieces of pottery are often discovered at archaeological sites, sometimes in great numbers. (See POTSHERD.) The kinds of pottery found are viewed by archaeologists as aids in identifying different cultures as well as in estimating the period of occupation represented by various layers at such sites. They have also endeavored to estimate population density of a particular place in ancient times on the basis of the quantity of such fragments discovered there.
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