Tyche Supplementband 6: Greek Ostraca from Chersonesos

86 pp. + 45 b/w plates, pb, in English.

The Greek ostraca from Chersonesos in Crete are the first example of an archive written with ink that comes from today’s Greek territory. During a rescue excavation in 1995 in the modern village of Chersonesos in a test trench in the ancient theater area 92 written and 38 non-written pieces of Roman time were found. The function of this archive is not totally clear. In an agricultural environment the ostraca could be the draft notes of a phrontistes of an estate, and in a commercial (and urban) environment the notes of a wholesale merchant. This unique collection contributes to the broader issues of the minuscule writing style outside Egypt, onomastics, the management of private, informal archives, Roman currency in Crete, the monetization of the Cretan economy, and to the specific agricultural and commercial contexts of the archive and the personnel involved.