Footnote

a Broken pieces of pottery, or ostraca, were commonly used in Bible times as an inexpensive writing surface. Says The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1986): “Ostraca could be used even by the poorest classes, who could not afford anything else to write on.” To what extent ostraca were used by ancient Israelites for jotting down Bible texts is unknown. Interestingly, though, seventh-century C.E. ostraca bearing Bible texts have been discovered in Egypt, suggesting one means by which common people had access to portions of the Bible.