From "An Essay on the Ostracist" (1)

The pottery shards found in an abandoned well were dubbed by the archaeologists and the popular press "the ostraka" after the Greek, or "the fragments" by others. Given the constitution of the shards, their cross-section, the tinge of the shards suggesting the presence of copper, they are believed to come from the heartland of the forgotten tribes of the island. Certain indentations in the clay have lead many to believe that the tribe had access to early-bronze-age implements, absent among the stone-age peoples that succeeded. Burial sites containing atlatls, however, reveal a resistance to bows and arrows, perhaps explaining the extinction of the culture.