32 Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts
[1980]
I. vances in the understanding of the early alphabet for the discussion of the antiquity of the Greek alphabet, and in a The discovery in 1953 of three arrowheads from )El• paper which will stand as a landmark, boldly pressed for ija<;lr inscribed with three identical inscriptions of the late a date about 1100 BCE for the borrowing of the alphabet twelfth century BCE initiated a new stage in the study of by the Greeks from the Phoenicians. 3 In the lively discus• alphabetic origins. 1 The brief texts of the arrowheads sion which has followed the publication of his study, provided secure readings of alphabetic signs at precisely more cautious or complicated proposals have been made the period of transition from the older pictographic in modification of his position. 4 (Proto-Canaanite or Old Canaanite) script to the Early In the past five years much important material from Linear (Phoenician) alphabet. These inscriptions also the twelfth and eleventh centuries has come to light. We provided clues to help extend the decipherment of earlier shall discuss here five such inscriptions: three hitherto and later alphabetic texts. 2 Perhaps more important, these unpublished texts (one from Qubur )el-Walaydah and two new data enabled us to describe the shifts of stances of al• from the hoard of )El-ija<;lr), and two recently published phabetic signs as they evolved in the multi-directional texts (a practice ostracon from
213 214 Old Canaanite and Phoenician Inscriptions
Figure 32.1. A tracing of the Qubur Walaydah inscription (from ca. 1200 BCE).
was skillfully engraved on the outside rim of the bowl Proto-Sinaitic 'water' pictograph. The Beth-shemesh after firing. It was written from left to right, individual mem is similar, but further rotated (or else in archaic words being separated by vertical dividers. Unfortu• stance). The simplified, five-stroke mem appears first in nately the end of the inscription (on the right) is broken the eleventh century. 7 off and lost. The third letter is evidently pe in its expected dextro• The text reads as follows [see Figs. 32.1 and 32.2]: grade stance. It is not a yod; the horizontal line below the top line is wheel-made by the potter; it is not engraved by smp'l. )y)l. s. r 107 ?[ ] the scribe. The only alternative would be to read gimel. The letters which are preserved fully on the sherd are Unfortunately both pe and gimel are rare before the late not in doubt. The sin, which appears twice, is the ex• eleventh century, and the