Valuable trash: Why the first Christians were known as the scum of the earth

Throughout Christian history, those at the bottom of society have been most receptive to the good news, explains David Instone-Brewer

Plastic, a non-biodegradable waste, is one of the scourges of the modern world. In New Testament times, it was pottery sherds – bits of broken pots, vases and crockery. They were everywhere – kicked into ditches, thrown over neighbours’ fences (no one was paid to pick up litter) – and they lasted forever. 

Of course, for archaeologists, sherds help with dating, and perhaps our plastic trash will have some value to future archaeologists as they distinguish between today’s take-away boxes, 1960s Tupperware and 1930s Bakelite wireless cases. 

But pottery sherds did have another practical use: they were a convenient medium to write on. A sherd that is found to have been used in this way is so valuable to scholars that it has a special name – an ‘ostracon’.