The name is derived from the
ostraka (singular
ostrakon, ὄστρακον), referring to the
pottery shards that were used as voting tokens. Broken pottery, abundant and virtually free, served as a kind of scrap paper (in contrast to
papyrus, which was imported from
Egypt as a high-quality writing surface, and was thus too costly to be disposable).
Each year the Athenians were asked in the
assembly whether they were wished to hold an ostracism. The question was put in the sixth of the
ten months used for state business under the democracy (January or February in the modern
Gregorian Calendar). If they voted "yes", then an ostracism would be held two months later. In a section of the
agora set off and suitably barriered,
[1] citizens gave the name of those they wished to be ostracised to a scribe, as many of them were illiterate, and they then scratched the name on pottery shards, and deposited them in
urns. The presiding officials counted the
ostraka submitted and sorted the names into separate piles. The person whose pile contained the most
ostraka would be banished, provided that an additional criterion of a
quorum was met