Ostrakon with a Letter from Frange to Enoch

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This ostrakon (plural ostraka, pottery sherd with writing) comes from the Monastery of Epiphanios, in Thebes, Egypt. It provides valuable information about some of the everyday economic activities at the site. The fragment here includes a letter in Coptic from the weaver Frange, who requests linen yarn from Brother Enoch at the monastery. Linen was one of the most ubiquitous textiles made in late antique Egypt, used both for daily wear and for burial.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art