Egypt
Biblical Archaeological Review
- New Book: Visible Language
Oriental Institute Thanks to Rhio Barnhart for the above link. Available as a PDF download. 12.33MB OIMP 32. Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is...
- More Re Semitic Text From Pyramid Of Unas
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070129100250.htm A spell written in hieroglyphs, but spelling out words in Semitic, is shown on this page, together with another summary of Professor Steiner's work. "Although written in Egyptian characters,...
- Ancient Spell May Be Oldest Semitic Text
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4493199.html"A magic spell to keep snakes away from the tombs of Egyptian kings, adopted from the Canaanites almost 5,000 years ago, could be the oldest Semitic text yet discovered, experts said Tuesday. The...
- Serabit Al-khadem
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/819/tr401.htmA short and somewhat dubious article from Al Ahram (since when was Serabit Al-Khadem in both the Nile Valley and Sinai at one and the same time?). But here it is anyway: "Miners were the very first settlers...
- Translation Into Hebrew Of Amarna Letters
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=635353 This one is only going to be of interest if you read Hebrew or have a friend to translate. Thanks to David Meadows and his excellent Explorator news email (issue 8.26 [email protected])...
Egypt
Who Really Invented the Alphabet
Biblical Archaeological Review
In a landmark article in the March/April 2010 issue of BAR, Orly Goldwasser, professor of Egyptology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained how the very first alphabet, from which all other alphabets developed, was invented by illiterate Canaanite miners in the turquoise mines of Serabit el-Khadem in the Sinai peninsula. Inspired by Egyptian pictorial hieroglyphs and a desire to articulate their own thoughts in writing, these Canaanites created 22 alphabetic acrophonetic signs scratched into the rock that could express their entire language.
But Goldwasser did not convince everyone. Anson Rainey, emeritus professor of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic Languages at Tel Aviv University, promptly responded to the article with his doubts that this watershed moment in human culture had been brought about by illiterate miners. In his letter Rainey argues that the alphabet was surely created by “highly sophisticated Northwest Semites” who inscribed countless papyrus sheets that have not survived.
Join us below to read Rainey’s critique and Goldwasser’s thorough rebuttal about who really invented the alphabet.
- New Book: Visible Language
Oriental Institute Thanks to Rhio Barnhart for the above link. Available as a PDF download. 12.33MB OIMP 32. Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is...
- More Re Semitic Text From Pyramid Of Unas
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070129100250.htm A spell written in hieroglyphs, but spelling out words in Semitic, is shown on this page, together with another summary of Professor Steiner's work. "Although written in Egyptian characters,...
- Ancient Spell May Be Oldest Semitic Text
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4493199.html"A magic spell to keep snakes away from the tombs of Egyptian kings, adopted from the Canaanites almost 5,000 years ago, could be the oldest Semitic text yet discovered, experts said Tuesday. The...
- Serabit Al-khadem
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/819/tr401.htmA short and somewhat dubious article from Al Ahram (since when was Serabit Al-Khadem in both the Nile Valley and Sinai at one and the same time?). But here it is anyway: "Miners were the very first settlers...
- Translation Into Hebrew Of Amarna Letters
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=635353 This one is only going to be of interest if you read Hebrew or have a friend to translate. Thanks to David Meadows and his excellent Explorator news email (issue 8.26 [email protected])...