British Committee (BCRPM)

ALT My photo shows twelve black painted circular bases from a type of ancient Greek pottery wine cup known as a ‘kylix’. At a glance they look like a display of chocolate ring doughnuts as they have a central hole, a dark painted ring, and a light clay outer ring. They are arranged in a museum display case in three rows of four, one row above the other. Each piece is inscribed by hand with the name of the famous Athenian general and politician Themistocles. They were pre-prepared for use as ‘ballots’ in a democratic voting process known as an ostracism. Broken pottery sherds like this, used as ballots for voting in an ostracism, are known as ‘ostraca’ (plural) / ‘ostracon’ (singular). These were found in a trove of pre-prepared ballots in a well on the north slope of the Athenian Acropolis. Seemingly unused, it’s suggested they were pre-prepared to hand out to Athenian voters who couldn’t write. Whilst Themistocles was not ostracised on that occasion, he was exiled a decade later.