ostraca

Noun

ostracon (plural ostraca)

1. A piece of pottery or stone, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel, especially one used to cast a vote during the Ancient Greek process of ostracism.
   • The process in this condemnation was thus : the people being assembled, every man took a tile called ostrakon and carried it to a certain part of the market place, surrounded by wooden rails for that purpose, in which were ten gates for the ten tribes to enter distinctly : in this place the tiles...1804, William Fordyce Mavor, chapter I, in Universal History, Ancient and Modern, volume III, New York: Stansbury, page 5