In Egypt, archaeologists have found numerous pieces of limestone and earthenware fragments on which there appear drawings and inscriptions written in ink (generally in cursive hieroglyphic script), many said to date from about the 16th to the 11th centuries B.C.E. and some thus possibly reaching back to the days of Moses and of Israel’s bondage in Egypt. Certain of these inscribed fragments consist of stories, poems, hymns, and the like, some of which were probably written as school lessons. Earthenware fragments apparently were used as writing material by people generally much as memo pads and other pieces of paper are today, to record accounts, sales, marriage contracts, lawsuits, and many other matters.

Greek ostraca found in Egypt include various types of documents but principally tax receipts. They give some insight into the Greek language as spoken by the common people of that land during Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine times, and so they are of some use in studies of the Koine used by writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Twenty Greek ostraca found in Upper Egypt were inscribed with portions of the four Gospels, these probably dating from the seventh century C.E.