Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (500 page)

 
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1
A fragment of soft stone or pottery bearing jottings or a writing exercise.
2
In classical Greek times a potsherd used as a voting paper. One particular ceremony was the practice of
ostrakismos
where each citizen could write the name of someone whom they wished to see banished on a potsherd. If sufficient votes were cast against the person they would be banished for ten years.

 
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See
GOTHS
.

 
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Type of late Saxon wheel-thrown pottery of the period
c.
ad 850–1150 found in Yorkshire and the north midlands of England.

 
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Small calcareous concretions found in the middle ear of fish. Because of their durability they survive well in archaeological deposits and can be recovered by wet sieving. Their importance lies in the fact that their shape and form allows them to be recognized to species and they can also provide information about the size, age, and sometimes even the season in which the fish was caught.

 
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Eastern European culture, centred upon northeastern Hungary and northwest Romania during the early and middle Bronze Age, broadly 1600–1300 bc. Settlements were generally fortified and set on low hills. Others lay on promontories, by rivers, or in marshland. Otomani pottery is distinguished by its elaborately fluted and bossed ornament, and the classical phase of the culture is associated with exotic metalwork hoards like those of Hajdusamson and Tufalau. Cemeteries are not well known, but those that have been explored suggest inurned cremation was the main burial rite.

 
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