Archaeologists have discovered the largest collection of ancient Egyptian "notebooks" found since the beginning of the twentieth century in the city of Athribis, central Egypt. Researchers have classified more than 18,000 inscribed pottery pieces, some of which appear to have been written by students.
Fragments of inked pottery are known as ostraca, and the remains of broken jars and other vessels in ancient Egypt were used on a daily basis, much cheaper and more accessible than papyrus, to detail shopping lists, record deals, copy literature, and teach students how to write and draw, according to the Science Alert website.
In fact, a large number of the notebooks found at the Archaeological Site of Athripps appear to be the remains of an old school.
Egyptologist Christian Lietz of the University of Tübingen in Germany says: "There are lists of months, numbers, arithmetic problems, grammar exercises and the 'bird alphabet', and a bird is assigned to each letter whose name begins with this letter.
More than a hundred of Athribis' writing methods are revealed in repeated writing exercises, with the same letters being written over and over, front and back.
Most of the notes were written in the Demotic language, which was an administrative text used during the reign of Ptolemy XII (known today as Cleopatra's father), who ruled from 81 to 59 BC and again later from 55 to 51 BC.
Wed, Feb. 9, 2022
