Even after the invention of papyrus or parchment, these types of writing material were too costly for the average person to use. Requiring some cheap, common, readily accessible material upon which to write, the poor of antiquity laid hold upon the one source of supply that was never wanting. This consisted of shards of pottery. By the side of every dwelling in ancient times might be found a small heap of broken utensils of clay. The ingenuity of man suggested a method of writing on these fragments. In every home there was a pen made of a reed and a pot of homemade ink. With these crude tools, the common people corresponded and made notes on pieces of clay vessels. When a fragment of pottery was thus inscribed, it was called an ostracon. These ostraca are among the most priceless discoveries of antiquity. They were written in the vernacular and dealt with the common daily affairs that made up the lives of the humble. They shed a flood of light upon the customs and beliefs of the mass of the people. Some of the wall inscriptions of great conquerors, if taken by themselves, would give an impression of grandeur and splendor to their entire era, if we believed such record implicitly. But for every king or conqueror there were multiplied thousands of poor. These were the folks who made up the mass of humanity and whose customs and lives paint the true picture of ancient times. Therefore, these ostraca, being derived from the common people, are the greatest aid in the reconstruction of the life and times wherewith the Bible deals. Another source of evidence is found in tools and artifacts which show the culture of any given time and region. Knowing how the people worked and what they wrought, has been of priceless value to the Biblical archeologist. Since the critics made so great a case out of the alleged culture of the people in every age, it is eminently fitting that the refutation of their error should come from the people themselves. Still another source of archeological material is to be found in the art of antiquity. It seems that from the time of Adam to the present hour the desire to express our feelings and emotions in the permanent form of illustration has been common to man. The sites of antiquity testify to this fact in unmistakable terms. In the art of the days of long ago many subjects were covered. Much of the painting and sculpture had to do with the religion of the time. Thus we can reconstruct the Pantheon of Egypt very largely from the illustrations that come to us from monuments and papyri. Another large section of ancient art dealt with the history of the time in which the artists lived and wrought. Since the work of such artists was generally intended to flatter and please the reigning monarch, most of this illustrated history is military in nature. Thus we are able to confirm much of the Old Testament history through the recovery of ancient art.