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In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels as well.[citation needed]
Occasionally, a piece of broken pottery may be referred to as a shard.[1] While the spelling shard is generally reserved for referring to fragments of glass vessels the term does not exclude pottery fragments.[1] The etymology is connected with the idea of breakage, from Old English sceard, related to Old Norse skarth, "notch", and Middle High German scharte, "notch".
A sherd or potsherd that has been used by having writing painted or inscribed on it can be more precisely referred to as an ostracon.
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