Ostracon with Line Drawing of Theban Triad

Ostraca (plural for ostracon) are potsherds used as surfaces for writing or drawing. By extension, the term is applied to chips of limestone, which were employed for similar purposes. Figural ostraca vary from sketches of a single feature to polychrome painted compositions. They were used to practice drawing, draft compositions, and copy scenes. However, some ostraca were created for more durable functions, used as cult images in religious practice and deposited at tombs or shrines as sites of access to the divine. Ostraca, on which animals appear acting as humans, have been variously interpreted as playful jokes, political satire, or illustrations to fables or myths in the oral tradition.


This ostracon depicts the Theban Triad of gods, Amun, Mut, and their son Khonsu. To the left, Amun wears a tall plumed crown and a broad collar. In his front, his name and epithet "Amun-Re King of the Gods" is written in a column of hieroglyphs. Mut stands behind him with her left hand raised towards him. She wears the vulture headdress and double crown, emphasizing her role as a protective mother and as wife to the king. Their son, Khonsu, stands behind them, wearing the lunar disk and a uraeus. Images such as this are found in temple contexts, so this ostracon may be a practice piece or copy. Furthermore, it may have functioned as an image of this divine nuclear family, deposited in a location of significance in the Valley of the Kings.