Ostrakine is depicted on the Madaba Map. Ostrakine was founded as a harbour in the first century BC. Ostrakine has traditionally been thought to be the site of the tomb of the prophet Habakkuk and the martyrdom of James the Less..Under the Romans, it was one of the principal cities of the province of Augustamnica. With Christianity, it became the seat of a bishopric, one of whose bishops, Abraham, subscribed to the Council of Ephesus (I). This is all we know about Ostracine.It was systematically exploited as a quarry from antiquity onward.
Sources:
- Jean Clédat. “Notes sur lʼIsthme de Suez. Autour du Lac de Baudouin.” Annales du Service des antiquités de lʼÉgypte 10: 1910., pp.220-224 and fig. 5.
- idem: “Fouilles à Khirbet el-Flousiyat (janvier-mars 1914).” Annales du Service des antiquités de lʼÉgypte 16:, 1916, 6-32. - https://tpsalomonreinach.mom.fr/s/TAPReinach/item/19193
- A religious encyclopædia: or, Dictionary of Biblical, historical, doctrinal and practical theology, New York: 1910, Funk & Wagnalls, p. 1140
- Oren, Eliezer D.. "A Christian Settlement at Ostrakine in North Sinai". In Tsafrir, Yoram (ed.). Ancient Churches Revealed. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. 19p93, pp. 305–314.
- https://4care-skos.mf.no/4care-sites/68/