Democracy by Broken Pot: Ostracism in Athens
A name scratched on a broken pot could banish you from Athens for ten years.
Mark Landon (User:Choliamb) — "Attic red-figure hydria attr to the Leningrad Painter (Chicago, Art Inst 1911.456) 01", CC BY 4.0
Pottery Shards as Ballots
A name scratched on a broken pot could banish you from Athens for ten years.
The Mechanics of Ostracism
Every year, Athenians could vote to exile someone they considered a threat to democracy. They did it by inscribing his name on a pottery shard—ostrakon. Archaeologists have dug up thousands of these in the Athenian agora, many covered in the same famous names.
Athenian citizens voted to exile their political enemies—not with ballots, but by scribbling names onto pottery shards called ostraka. Archaeologists in Athens have unearthed thousands of these fragments, many inscribed with the same handful of notorious names.
