There are texts in there!

Seeking the Origin of Alphabets

Miller C. Prosser, Ph.D.

Slow development

Competing systems

But first, where and when did writing start?

Concept > picture > abstract form

Writing

ProtoTrue

What?

Do all pictures = writing?

Read this letter!Is this writing?

Writing (i.e. True Writing) intends to record linguistic utterances that communicate a specific message that can be interpreted by the reader in such a way as to reconstruct the original message of the writer.

WritingWhen and Where?

• Sumer c. 3300 BCE• Egypt c. 3300 BCE• China c. 1200 BCE• Mesoamerica c. 600-200 BCE

Early Egyptian labels from Abydos, c. 3200 B.C.E.This writing is on the path toward a fully developed system.What is the precursor to this system?Royal tomb context: writing as prestige, power, and marker of elite status

Early Sumerian administrative accountThis is already a fully developed systemWhat is the precursor?

• Tokens represent quantities of commodities• Sealed in a globe or envelope• A type of legal document• Not everybody is convinced of the “textual” nature of these

tokens.

From Tokens to Texts: Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE)

From Tokens to Texts: Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (c. 858-824 BCE)

Cuneiform culture• Latin cuneus, “wedge” + forma “shape”• Approx. 1 million tablets discovered (± a lot)• Begins with Sumerian; a writing system adopted

for about a dozen languages• Attested from 3300 BCE – 1st century AD• Persia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, Levant, Egypt• International system of writing at certain periods• Scribal curriculum

Elamite tablet, Persian periodAdministrative system of rations, etc.Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, Oriental Institute

The Phaistos Disk2nd millennium BCE

Linear A2nd millenniumundeciphered

Linear Bc. 1400-1200 BCE

Greece and the Aegeanbefore the alphabet

Tokens (8500)Tokens/envelopes (3500)Numerical tablets (3400)Sumerian (3300)Egyptian (3300)Hieratic (3200)Proto-Elamite (3100)Semitic Cuneiform (2500)

Crete/Aegean (2100)*Proto-Sinaitic (1850)Hittite (1650)*Proto-Canaanite (1600)*Ugaritic (1300)Chinese (1200)Olmec (1200)*Phoenician (1000)

Type of writing (dates BCE)

*alphabetic writing systems

The invention of the alphabetic idea: a hypothesis

= bêt, ‘house’ used as b

Proto-Sinaitic (Canaanite) Egyptian

= bêt, ‘house’ used as B

Proto-Sinaitic (Canaanite)

= ʿên, ‘eye’ used as ʿ

= lamed, < verb ‘to learn’ used as L

= tav, ‘a mark’ used as T

= bʿlt, “Lady”

Proto-SinaiticSerabiṭ el-Ḫadem(c. 1800 BCE ?)

lbʿlt, “to the Lady”

Proto-SinaiticWadi el-Hol #1 12th dynasty Egypt (c. 1800 BCE)

Proto-CanaaniteLachish Ewer

mtn . šy[…]ty ʾlt

Attested Proto-Canaanite Texts

Ugarit

Left to right

Cuneiform wedges

Alphabetic

Language related to Phoenician and Hebrew

Abecedary(The ABC’s)a͗bgḫdh…

30 signs in the cuneiform alphabet

Ugaritic Akkadian

a͗ a

b be

• Scribes trained in Akkadian• They compared alphabetic

and syllabic writing.

Abecedary(The ABC’s)South-Arabian Order

• A short alphabet• 22 letters

• Canaanite influence?• For foreign languages?

• Not used for standard Ugaritic texts

Recto  1 l . mlk . u͗grt  2 a͗ḫy . rgm  3 tḥm . mlk . ṣr . a͗ḫk  4 yšlm . lk . ıl͗m  5 tġrk . tšlmk  6 hnny . ʿmn  7 šlm . ṯmny  8 ʿmk . mnm ⸢.⸣ šlm  9 rgm . ṯṯ⸢b⸣  10 a͗nykn . dt  11 lık͗t . mṣrm  12 hndt . b . ṣr

Lower edge 13 mtt . by x⸢x⸣ 14 gšm . a͗dr

Verso 15 nškḥ . w 16 rb . tmtt 17 lqḥ . kl . ḏrʿ 18 bd⸢nh⸣m . w . a͗n⸢k⸣ 19 k[l] ⸢.⸣ ḏrʿ⸢h⸣m 20 ⸢k⸣l ⸢. n⸣pš . 21 w ⸢. a͗⸣klhm . bd 22 rb [.] tmtt . lqḥt 23 w . ṯṯb . a͗nk . lhm 24 w . a͗nyk . ṯt 25 by . ʿky . ʿryt 26 w . a͗ḫy . mhk 27 b . lbh . a͗l . yšt

Ugaritic Letter RS 18.0311To the king of Ugarit, 2my brother, say:3The message of the king of Tyre, your brother:4I hope you are well. May the gods 5guard you

and keep you safe. 6I am well. 9Please write and tell me that 8everything is well with you:

10Your ship that 11you sent to Egypt 12was/is here in Tyre 13because, truly, 15they found themselves 13in 14a great rainstorm.

16The chief of the garrison 17took all the seed-grain 18from (them/it?), but I, 19as for all of their grain, 20every person, 21and all of their other belongings, 22I took them from the chief of the garrison 23and returned it to them.

24Your other ship 25was unloaded Akko.26May my brother 27not worry.

Distribution of cuneiform alphabetic texts

Iron Age transitionWide adoption of alphabetic ideaLinear scripts (cuneiform falls out of use)Very few texts c. 1180-1000 BCEPerishable?

Izbet Sartah ostracon, c. 1000 BCEContinuation of the linear alphabet tradition22 letters!

Phoenician city-states

Phoenician alphabet, c. 1000 BCE22 lettersVariation in letter forms

* over time* in different locations

What were the linear alphabets doing during c. 1400 -1000 BCE?• Almost certainly more evolution!• The Phoenicians adopted an alphabet that didn’t quite fit.• The Phoenician sounds ḫ and ḥ use the same letter:

Proto-Canaanite Phoenician

Probably Phoenician10th century (?)11.1 x 7.2 cm

Sarcophagus of Ahiram king of Byblos, Phoenician c. 1000 BCE (38 words long)Beirut National Museum

Coffin which Ittobaal, son of Ahiram, king of Byblos, made for Ahiram, his father, when he placed him in eternity.

Inscription by Elibaal king of ByblosOn a bust of Osorkon I (c. 922-887 BCE)Old Byblian Phoenician script

“The statue which Elibaal king of Byblos son of Yahumilk made for Baʿalat-Gubl, his Lady.”

Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, c. 500 BCEFound near Sidon in 185522 lines

I have been seized before my time, the son of (only) a number of days, a smitten one, an orphan, the son of a widow; and I lie in this box and in this grave, in the place which I built.

Phoenician with Aramaic influence

“A conjuration for SSM son of PDRŠ.Pronounce in his favor and against the she-strangler,‘The house where I enter, you may not enter;the court where I walk, you may not walk.’”

ʾnk . klmw . br . ḥyI am Kulamuwa, son of Ḥiya

To some I was a father, to some I was a mother, to some I was a brother.Whoever had not seen the face of a sheep, I made owner of a flock;Whoever had not seen the face of an ox, I made owner of a herd,and owner of silver and owner of gold.

Kulamuwa Inscription (9th century BCE) Phoenician languageAramaic kingdom of Samʾal

The Phoenician alphabet is the parent to all later alphabets.They didn’t invent it, but they brought it to the world.

MAKE THE ALPHABET GREAT AGAIN!

Elephantine papyrus, Nov. 25, 407 BCE

Nefayan led the Egyptians with other troops. Arriving with their weapons at the fortress of Yeb, they entered the temple and burned it to the ground. They smashed the stone pillars that were there. They demolished five great gateways constructed of hewn blocks of stone which were in the temple; but their doors (are still standing), and the hinges of those doors are made of bronze. And the roof of cedar in its entirety.

Let a letter be sent from you to them concerning the temple of the god YHW to construct it in the fortress of Yeb as it was before.

Paleo-Hebrew writing≈ 63 legible ostracaDaily receipts of deliveriesc. 850-750 BCE

Discovered in 1980Area B, square G 11c. 750-650 BCERations to specific people by location

Rhodian sealing

Rhodian sealingΕΠΙΠΡΑΓΦΑΝΕΥΣ ΕΠΙ ΠΡΑΓ ΦΑΝΕΥΣ“in the term of the agent Phaneus” (?)

What might we find?

Keisan Lecture Series 2016: Seeking the Origin of Alphabets

Miller Prosser

Thanks!

Tell Fakhariya Inscription9th century BCE (early adoption of alphabet!)Bilingual Assyrian and AramaicPolitical and cultural connections

“The statue of Hadad-yisʿi, king of Guzan, Sikan, and, Azran, for perpetuating his throne…”

I am KTMW, servant of Panamuwa, who commissioned for myself (this) stele while still living. I placed it in my eternal chamber and established a feast at this chamber.

KTMW SteleZincirli (8th century BCE)

Khirbet Qeiyafa OstraconEarly Hebrew, or something else entirely?Often difficult to determine!

Lachish letters, c. 590 BCEFrom Hoshayahu to YaushMilitary (?) activities

Please explain to your servant the meaning of the letter which my lord sent to your servant yesterday. For your servant has been sick at heart ever since you sent it to you servant. And as for what my lord said, “You do not know how to read a letter!” As YHWH lives, no one has ever tried to read a letter to me!