The implementation of writing as a form of communication
involves a complicated yet interesting feature of the emerging
ancient Near East. The chronological development of pictures into
letters and words depicts the creativity of ancient cultures,
striving to preserve records in concrete form.
Early
History
Hieroglyphs.
Evidence from the end of the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia and
Egypt depicts written communication as originally pictographic, or
hieroglyphic, in nature. Each small, primitive picture represented
objects, concepts, and actions. Egyptian hieroglyphics (3150 BC)
employed several hundred frequently used phonetic signs, some of
which were alphabetic in character. Egyptian writing is based on the
acrophonic principle, in which each pictorial symbol designates the
first sound in the object’s name. Each sign could also
represent a single consonantal sound followed by a vowel. In
addition, Egyptian pictographs can represent two or three consonant
clusters, with or without various vowels, although customarily
hieroglyphics omitted vocalization (vowel pronunciation). As a
result, there are four different ways to interpret every Egyptian
hieroglyph because each symbol serves multiple functions. Egyptian
writing used a combination of nonalphabetic signs in addition to
alphabetic symbols, lacking the economy and simplicity of an
alphabet. Most of the twenty alphabetic symbols transcribed foreign
proper names.
While
some archaeological remains of Egyptian writing are engraved on stone
or rock, the majority of writing entailed the use of a brush made of
reed or rush. The common black ink was used for normal writing, while
important passages or information were written in red ink. Egyptian
writing on papyrus consisted mainly of drawings or painted lines
depicting signs. Some stone engravings of Egyptian hieroglyphics are
dated to the first century AD, although the cursive system on
papyrus, primarily employed for sacred or hieratic (cursive) texts,
extended through three millennia. Archaeological evidence reveals
that contracts, accounting, and business documents were written with
a demotic, or popular, diplomatic cursive system from at least the
eighth century BC through the first century AD.
Syllabic
writing and cuneiform.
The complicated writing systems of the ancient Near East gave birth
to simpler forms of written expression that could convey abstract
concepts in addition to concrete ideas. Syllabic writing, consisting
of an enormous number of signs, each representing a syllable,
developed from the early Egyptian forms of pictographic, or
hieroglyphic, writing. This writing system, comprised of almost six
hundred signs, represented a variety of sound values, since all
languages have far more possible syllables than they have individual
words. Written in cuneiform characters impressed with a stylus on wet
clay, the signs concurrently retain a pictographic function while
also expressing whole words or syllables. The earliest known
cuneiform, Sumerian, dates before the third millennium BC, evolving
from the utilitarian needs of the city-states. Early tablets of
stylus-embedded clay signs that were subsequently baked in the sun
preserved many of the Sumerian writings for millennia. Sumerian does
not resemble any other ancient or modern language in either grammar
or vocabulary. The wedge-shaped linear signs, created with a square
or round stylus, were originally written vertically, then rotated
into a horizontal format, and read from left to right.
The
Akkadians adopted the Sumerian sign system in the middle of the third
millennium BC; however, they read those words as Akkadian
equivalents. Since the number of separate sounds in most languages is
small, the concomitant number of signs required to represent those
sounds would be few. Akkadian sounds are not all adequately
represented by Sumerian script because Sumerian, as an unrelated
language, lacks some of the distinctive sounds essential to Akkadian.
Consequently, a written language consisting of individual sounds
could not develop from Akkadian cuneiform writing. Akkadian evolved
in two areas of Mesopotamia into two East Semitic dialects,
Babylonian and Assyrian, which continued in use through the first
century AD.
Similar
to Egyptian, Proto-Canaanite was written either horizontally or
vertically, and from left to right on one line, then right to left on
the next. The direction of writing determined the direction or stance
of the signs. The predominant use of vertical columns of writing in
the earliest period shifted gradually to a horizontal script during
the Late Bronze Age. Many symbols shifted ninety degrees clockwise to
adapt to the horizontal direction of script. These rotated forms have
been traced from the analysis of documents extending from the
fifteenth to the eleventh centuries BC, when character direction
stabilized.
The
need for more-efficient modes of communication grew in proportion to
the expansion of administrative and international correspondence. A
faster script developed over time, and although such trends
influenced lapidary, or engraved-stone script, the latter remained
intact alongside cursive script, usually written in ink. The spread
of writing activity beyond the professional scribal schools led to
widespread writing variations among the common people. Officials
struggled to maintain certain writing standards, while those who were
unrestricted found methods of faster writing. These innovations led
to a widespread cultural adoption of one systematized form of
writing.
Early
Alphabet
Inscriptions
in Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform have been
uncovered in Syria-Palestine, although overwhelming evidence
substantiates the development of an indigenous writing system in
the region of Syria-Palestine: the alphabet. The reduction of several
hundred signs to twenty or thirty made writing more accessible to the
general community and systematized written communication.
The
first steps toward alphabetic writing took place during the early
second millennium BC, eventually rendering Egyptian and cuneiform
writing extinct. The invention of a Proto-Canaanite alphabet rendered
it one of the most influential innovations of the ancient world. All
known alphabets originated from Proto-Canaanite, and the invention
has never been repeated in isolated cultures using a syllabic script
or logographics, visual symbols representing words or sounds. The
invention of the alphabetical system, in which only one sign
represented each phoneme or sound, allowed for sounds to be combined
with vowels, contrary to the syllabic system, in which each sign
represented both a consonant and a specific vowel. The limited
notation of the Proto-Canaanite script harmonized well with the
peculiarity of syllable formation in the West Semitic languages.
Every syllable begins with a consonant, and the vowel system in
Proto-Canaanite consists of only three vowel areas of phonemic
significance, lending simplicity to the script.
Alphabetic
inscriptions.
The most important surviving exemplars of early alphabetic writing
are the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions discovered by Flinders Petrie in
the ruins of an Egyptian turquoise mining community in the Sinai
Peninsula at Serabît el-Khadem. The alphabetic inscriptions,
some carved in stone by Canaanite mine workers, generally reflect
religious votive texts. Some of the inscriptions were carved on piles
of stones or on rock panels shaped to resemble stelae, slabs of stone
erected as memorials. These inscriptions date to the second half of
the sixteenth through the first half of the fifteenth centuries BC.
Other alphabetic inscriptions found in various Canaanite ruins
(Gezer, Shechem, Lachish) date to approximately the seventeenth to
the sixteenth centuries BC. These discoveries suggest that the
alphabetic script was more widespread than first conjectured and make
it more difficult to determine the exact location where the
alphabetic script first developed. The Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions
are subsumed under the broader category of Proto-Canaanite; on this
basis, historical linguistics established a date around the fifteenth
century BC. Egyptian influence on the alphabetic script is apparent,
since the Egyptians had a small number of phonetic signs that were
alphabetic in nature, though they did not use them that way. The use
of pictorial signs to represent initial sounds by the Egyptians may
be observed in the earliest alphabetic writing from Canaan.
The
Gezer Sherd (1800–1630 BC?) represents the oldest extant
example of genuine alphabetic writing, with three archaic alphabetic
signs: a palm, which signifies the letter k; a house, which signifies
the letter b; and an ox goad, which represents the letter l. The
Proto-Sinaitic inscription number 357, scratched on the wall of a
mine in Serabît-el Khadem, depicts one of the longer examples
of early alphabetic writing. The text is read vertically from top to
bottom, then horizontally. The pictographs, such as the fish,
represent the first letter of the word. Thus, a fish, called dag,
represents the letter d; water, called mayim, denotes m; and so
forth.
Ugaritic
texts.
Beginning in 1928, a large cache of tablets from the fourteenth
century BC was discovered at Ras Shamra of Ugarit. The excavations
yielded approximately one hundred tablets written in Canaanite
cuneiform, which employs only a limited number of signs in contrast
to the hundreds of signs generally depicted in cuneiform scripts. The
script—consisting of a simple combination of lines and wedges
adapted into lapidary, or engraved-stone, writing—is based on
an alphabetic system. The tablets include a number of abecedaries (or
alphabet lists), organized in a manner similar to early linear
Phoenician. Increasing evidence suggests that the Canaanite cuneiform
alphabet was not limited to Ugarit but was also employed by the
Canaanites throughout Syria-Palestine. Ugarit ceased to exist after a
severe earthquake and fire in 1200 BC.
The
Ugaritic alphabet, an adaptation of the early linear alphabet of
Proto-Canaanite, originally comprised twenty-seven consonantal signs.
Ugaritic scribes did not adhere strictly to the consonantal principle
of the linear alphabet. Instead of one sign representing, for
example, the letter alef, the scribes employed three signs, each of
which represented alef plus one of three short vowels: a, i, or u. A
traditional order of the signs seemed fixed no later than the
fourteenth century BC, according to texts excavated in 1949. Ugaritic
generally is written from left to right. A word divider often
separates the words from one another, although there are many
exceptions. The tablets have their share of scribal omissions and
additions, and the stance of the letters varies on some tablets.
The
establishment of a long alphabet comprising thirty letters might have
been construed as the earlier and original one, from which a shorter
alphabet of twenty-seven letters developed through the loss of eight
letters; however, this line of development would contradict the
normal expansion of alphabetical systems as they accommodate a
particular language. Evidence affirms the coexistence of the longer
alphabet, expressly used for Ugaritic, and shorter abecedaries
displaying characteristics of later Phoenician.
Discoveries
have even uncovered two Ugaritic tablets that contain an alphabet
composed of twenty-one signs, perhaps indicating an idiomatic version
of the alphabet. In 1955 a special type of abecedary came to light
that lists in parallel columns the Ugaritic signs and the
cuneiform syllabic signs meant to transcribe the Ugaritic. Although
the tablet is incomplete, the text contains the transcriptions of
twenty signs.
The
Ugaritic texts represent the oldest available complex of connected
texts in any West Semitic language, furnishing materials for
comparative Semitic linguistics, including pronunciation, word
formation, and lexical data from the Late Bronze Age. These royal
documents and cultic mythological texts display highly formulaic
poetic structure, helping inform other ancient Near Eastern poetic
texts. The range of archaic and more contemporary texts allows the
scholar to trace the development of language over a long interval of
time.
Early
Phoenician and Related Scripts
Two
principal linear alphabet forms were established by the end of the
Late Bronze Age (c. 1300 BC): a northern tradition (Phoenician) and a
southern tradition.
Phoenician.
The
consonantal inventory of Phoenician, limited to twenty-two letters,
became the original source for subsequent alphabetic writing,
including Hebrew, Aramaic, Moabite, and eventually the Greek
alphabet. The earliest existing texts date to approximately the
eleventh century BC, although earlier inscriptions dating to the late
thirteenth and early twelfth centuries BC demonstrate the evolution
toward linear Phoenician. Among significant twelfth-century
inscriptions, the 1953 discovery of the ’El-Khadr arrowheads
provided important data concerning the transitional period between
older pictographic script and the early linear (Phoenician) alphabet.
The arrowheads record the shift in letter stances as they evolved in
the multidirectional writing styles of the Proto-Canaanite period
until they stabilized in the eleventh century BC.
Among
the peoples who adopted the Phoenician script were the Hebrews and
the Arameans. A bilingual inscription written in Akkadian and Aramaic
employs the Phoenician characters, although opinions regarding dating
are diverse (eleventh through ninth centuries BC). Ancient Aramaic
inscriptions from the ninth to the eighth centuries BC continued to
render their languages using the Phoenician script. The earliest
substantial Phoenician inscription known is an elaborately carved
text on the upper rim and lid of a limestone sarcophagus belonging to
Ahiram, king of Byblos. The inscription is one of five other Byblos
inscriptions written in Phoenician script that present historical
information concerning the reign of five kings during the tenth
century BC and provide links in the chain of the diachronic
development of early Phoenician characters.
Hebrew
and Moabite.
Ancient Hebrew inscriptions appropriate the Phoenician alphabetic
script as well; however, it became apparent that the scripts and
languages of the various Iron Age states of Syria and Canaan began
developing regional or national features that distinguished them from
one another. Aside from the Gezer Calendar, probably one of the most
famous early ancient Hebrew inscriptions is found on the Moabite
Stone, a black granite stela erected by Mesha, king of Moab, dating
to the middle of the ninth century BC. The characters on the Moabite
Stone are decidedly Moabite, but the language is Hebrew. The form of
the Moabite script manifests discernible differences in development
from the linear Phoenician; however, at this time Hebrew and Moabite
would have been indistinguishable. Distinctive Hebrew forms do not
emerge until the discovery of the inscribed stone bowl found at
Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. The later Hebrew alphabet manifests
commonalities and influences of the early linear script of
Phoenician, adapting the twenty-two grapheme, or consonantal,
alphabet and retaining certain letter names, such as mem and bet.
Greek.
The Phoenician alphabet was transported to Greece during the late
ninth or early eighth century BC. Although there are certain features
that seem incompatible with the late-ninth- or eighth-century
borrowing from Phoenician, the majority of the Greek script
originates from a combination of Phoenician and perhaps some other
Northwest Semitic alphabetic writing as well. Some of the archaic
Greek letters seem to resemble Proto-Canaanite letters of 1100 BC.
Paleo-Hebrew
and Aramaic.
Increasing use of an alphabetic writing system throughout the ancient
Near East became evident from the number of preserved clay seals,
seal impressions, ostraca, and lists, all of which exemplify the
Paleo-Hebrew script prevalent during this period. Among these finds,
the ’Izbet Sartah Ostracon, uncovered in 1976, displays
eighty-three letters arranged in five lines, beginning at the bottom
with an abecedary, leading scholars to believe that this was a
practice exercise. The ostracon contains multiple errors, confirming
the inexperience of the scribe.
The
Aramean kingdom, conquered by Assyria, included a number of Aramean
scribes who served in the Assyrian administration, leading to the
prominence of Aramaic as the official international language of trade
during the Persian Empire. Aramaic also evolved into the official
trade language in Judah; the square script was first appropriated by
the Jewish people in commercial communication. During the postexilic
period and extending through the Hellenistic period, the Jewish
communities employed the square Aramaic script for copying sacred
documents, including the Torah. Sections of the books of Ezra and
Daniel (Ezra 4:6–6:18; 7:16–26; Dan. 2:4–7:28)
combine Hebrew with Aramaic. The few artifacts from the Persian
period onward suggest that the use of Paleo-Hebrew, apart from a few
formal names and manuscript fragments, gradually dissipated and was
eventually totally replaced by the Aramaic square script.
The
Greek language and script also began to play a more prominent role in
Judean culture during the Second Temple period and onward into the
first century AD. The Samaritans preserved the practice of
transcribing biblical texts in Paleo-Hebrew, and the tradition
remains evident in the DSS. While some of the biblical scrolls
reflect Paleo-Hebrew, there are a number of Greek translations of the
biblical text as well, suggesting a plurality of text traditions.
Most Jews used the square script for common communication, though
Greek gained importance for many Jews. Eventually, the Hebrew Bible
was translated into Greek in order to meet the linguistic needs of
the Jewish communities.
Conclusion
Alphabetic
writing, first devised and implemented in ancient Syria-Palestine,
provided the template for all other alphabetic systems known in the
modern world. Although in many cases the evidence for the development
of Northwest Semitic languages before the first millennium BC remains
slim, archaeological discoveries enable scholars to trace the
development of early alphabetic writing from its Egyptian
hieroglyphic and Sumerian roots. Near the end of the first century
BC, early linear Phoenician characters evolved, not as a national
script, but as an international script appropriated by peoples
throughout Syria and Canaan. This development is not surprising in
light of Phoenicia’s extensive seagoing trade economy.
Eventually, emerging city-states developed distinctive
characteristics and national dialects that expanded into many other
languages. Society owes much to the Egyptians and the Sumerians, with
whom writing began, and to those who first envisioned an innovative
and simplified means of written communication.
