Ostrakon with a Letter from Lazarius to Epiphanius

Art Historical Context

This unassuming pottery fragment, known as an *ostrakon*, captures a slice of everyday life in Coptic Egypt around 600 AD. Measuring just under 8 inches long, it bears an ink inscription—a personal letter from Lazarius to Epiphani—scribed on a broken shard of ceramic. Ostraka like this were the ancient equivalent of scrap paper, reused for notes, letters, and accounts when papyrus was scarce or costly, offering invaluable glimpses into the daily communications of ordinary people in late antique Egypt. In the Coptic Christian world of early medieval Egypt, under Byzantine influence, such artif...