Ostrakon with an Epistle of Severos, Bishop of Antioch after 508-640 Coptic Ostraca are texts written on broken pottery, which were employed when parchment was unavailable or too expensive. At Epiphanius a large number of ostraca were discovered in the monastery, including in its rubbish heaps; they record biblical verses, legal documents, sermons, financial accounts, school texts, and letters requesting assistance and prayers. Some reveal that, even at the southernmost border of the Empire, people were still aware of events in the capital, Constantinople.Ostracon with an Epistle of Severos, Bishop of AntiochThe text refers to the troubles of Makedonios II, patriarch of Constantinople from 496 to 511. Severos was in the city in 508-511: Apa Severos unto Soterichos, the bishop of Cappadocia. But the Christ-loving and honored general Patricius having arisen, said unto him in just anger, “A synod that every one hath rejected, it befitteth thee not to bring forward the same again, by the