Archaeologists find 18,000 "sticky notes" from ancient Egypt that reveal what life was like for ordinary people at the time.

Archaeologists find 18,000 “sticky notes” from ancient Egypt that reveal what life was like for ordinary people at the time.

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 16/04/2026 at 02:24

Seja o primeiro a reagir!

In addition to the educational context, the ostraca of ancient Egypt served as tax receipts, goods receipts, and shopping lists. The fragments detail transactions of food such as wheat and bread, as well as recording names of individuals and their respective debts or payments. This data allows historians to reconstruct the workings of local trade and better understand the distribution of resources among the common citizens of the city.

The preservation of these records was favored by the durable material of ceramics, which survived over time much better than organic documents. The meticulous analysis of each piece is helping to map social relationships and daily customs, such as religious rituals and bureaucratic interactions.

Through the ostraca of ancient Egypt, it is possible to perceive that financial concerns and administrative organization were omnipresent aspects of ancient urban life.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

See also

The discovery in Athribis is comparable, in terms of volume and importance, to the findings made in the workers’ village of Deir el-Medina, near the Valley of the Kings. While monuments and tombs often focus on the lives of kings and gods, these ostraca of ancient Egypt bring to light the voices of artisans, peasants, and students. The project, led by the University of Tübingen in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, took years to complete due to the fragility and quantity of the material.

Researchers believe that many other fragments may still be buried at the site, which could further expand knowledge about the cultural transition in Egypt. The systematization of this information offers a new perspective on social history, focused on basic human experience rather than just major political events.

The ostraca of ancient Egypt prove to be one of the richest sources for understanding the evolution of writing and social organization in the Nile basin.

With information Zme Science

0 Comentários

Mais recente

Mais antigos Mais votado

Feedbacks

Visualizar todos comentários

Archaeologists find 18,000 “sticky notes” from ancient Egypt that reveal what life was like for ordinary people at the time.

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

The CEO of Honor in Spain says that smartphones will change with AI, foldables, and even robot phones; the component crisis is making cheap models more expensive in 2026 and shifting the focus to premium.

Russia surprises the world with its new weapon that does not fire, but makes its soldiers ‘invisible’, controls drones hundreds of kilometers away, reduces training to 1 hour, integrates autonomous AI, and already supports over 30,000 drones in warfare.

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy select companies to develop nuclear fission reactors for permanent bases on the Moon.

While the USA goes to the Moon in search of energy, China silently explores an abundant stone on Earth capable of generating energy for the next 60,000 years.

Goodbye overheating: UCLA scientists reveal new material that combats overheating in electronics and surpasses copper with impressive efficiency, potentially revolutionizing performance and transforming the future of global technology.

Children who take care of younger siblings develop advanced empathy, and Brazil is creating fewer and fewer opportunities for this.

Archaeologists find 18,000 “sticky notes” from ancient Egypt that reveal what life was like for ordinary people at the time.

Archaeological importance for understanding social history

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

The CEO of Honor in Spain says that smartphones will change with AI, foldables, and even robot phones; the component crisis is making cheap models more expensive in 2026 and shifting the focus to premium.

Children who take care of younger siblings develop advanced empathy, and Brazil is creating fewer and fewer opportunities for this.

Brazilian Air Force (FAB) conducts first landing with C-98 Caravan aircraft on concrete runway in the Amazon.

Scientists are revealing what almost no one sees in the Grand Canyon: underground rivers and hidden reserves that help sustain the canyon may be changing.

The Brazilian Army standardizes three models of .50 caliber machine guns with 12.7 mm caliber, a range exceeding 1,800 meters, and a rate of fire of up to 600 rounds per minute, involving FN Herstal, US Ordnance, and Canik in a new military strategy.

The smallest inhabited island in Spain is only 1.8 km long, is less than 1 hour from Alicante, houses an 18th-century walled village with 3 historical gates, and protects a marine reserve of rare biodiversity.

Russia surprises the world with its new weapon that does not fire, but makes its soldiers ‘invisible’, controls drones hundreds of kilometers away, reduces training to 1 hour, integrates autonomous AI, and already supports over 30,000 drones in warfare.

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy select companies to develop nuclear fission reactors for permanent bases on the Moon.

While the USA goes to the Moon in search of energy, China silently explores an abundant stone on Earth capable of generating energy for the next 60,000 years.

Goodbye overheating: UCLA scientists reveal new material that combats overheating in electronics and surpasses copper with impressive efficiency, potentially revolutionizing performance and transforming the future of global technology.

Children who take care of younger siblings develop advanced empathy, and Brazil is creating fewer and fewer opportunities for this.