Lines written by 'naughty pupils' among 18,000 ancient pottery fragments found in Egypt

CNN
Feb. 10, 2022
Oscar Holland

Archaeologists have uncovered over 18,000 pieces of pottery inscribed with details of life in ancient Egypt -- including lines written as punishment by badly behaved students.

The 2,000-year-old fragments also included receipts, school texts, trade information and lists of names, according to researchers at Germany's University of Tübingen, which carried out the excavation.

The discoveries were made at the site of Athribis, an ancient settlement built around 200 kilometers north of Luxor. Marked with ink using reeds or hollowed sticks, the recovered pottery pieces, known as "ostraca," are the remains of jars or vessels that were used as writing materials.

Around four-fifths of the fragments were inscribed with Demotic, one of the three ancient scripts featured on the Rosetta Stone. Greek, Arabic and Egyptian hieroglyphics were among the other scripts found on the ostraca.

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