SOHAG, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that a team of German and Egyptian researchers has uncovered more than 13,000 ostraca, or fragments of pottery bearing texts, at Athribis, a site on the west bank of the Nile River in central Egypt. The texts are written in Demotic, hieratic, Coptic, Greek, and Arabic, and mostly relate to financial transactions, according to Mostafa Waziri of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. Some of the fragments date back to the Byzantine and Roman eras, added Mohamed Abdel-Badia of the central department for Upper Egypt. Study of the texts, explained Egyptologist Christian Leitz of the University of Tübingen, will reveal more information about the activities of the site’s inhabitants, while the variety of scripts also suggests there may have been a school in the area, he said. To read about another Egyptian ostracon, go to "Artifact."

Athribis