potsherd

noun

1. (often)A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.

   “But this madde Amalecke, / Lyke to a Mamelek, / He regardeth lordes / No more than potshordes; […]”

   “[W]ho can deny but that the rod of Gods mouth is indeed Virga virtutis, a rod of strength, an iron rod, able to deale with all humane reaſonings, as a hammer with a potſherd, which though to the hand of a man it may feele as hard as a rocke, yet is too brittle to endure the blow of an iron rod?”

   “Job took a potſherd to ſcrape himself, becauſe his hands were as full of boils as his body: This is the caſe of thy corrupt ſoul: not to be recovered but by Jeſus Chriſ, whoſe ſtrength was dried up like a potſherd, Pſal[ms] xxii. 15.”

   “[I]n the case of pottery, it [epigraphy] is usually taken to include graffiti scratched with a sharp point, and even painted inscriptions which are made before firing as part of the design of a vase, but not written documents (ostraka), in which pot-sherds are merely used as a material to write on instead of papyrus.”

   “Speiser, who made excavations on Vao Island found prehistoric potsherds at a depth of 10 inches, and on the surface of the ground also.”