A joint German-Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered a collection of 13,000 ostraca at the Al-Sheikh Hamad archaeological site in Tel Atribis, Sohag, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism. The clay fragments are engraved with text in demotic, hieratic, Coptic, Greek, and Arabic, relate mostly to financial transactions, such as buying wheat and bread, and contain lists of the names of people and their families. The ostraca date back to the Ptolemaic era, the beginning of the Roman era, the Coptic era, and the Islamic era.
The mission also found a collection of ostraca that date back to the Roman or Byzantine eras. The discovery is significant as it provides an opportunity for researchers to study the economic life of the city of Atribes and the dealings of the city’s residents during ancient times. The discovery highlights the importance of the archaeological site as the second most important source of discovered ostraca after the site of Deir al-Madina west of Luxor.
