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Definition
Greek Alphabet
The Greek Alphabet developed from the Phoenician script at some point around the 8th century BCE. The earlier Mycenaean Linear B script, used primarily for lists and inventories, had been lost during the Greek Dark Age, and the technology...
Definition
Alphabet
The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt. By 2700 BCE Egyptian writing had a set of some 22 hieroglyphs to represent syllables that begin with a single consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by...
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The Phoenician Alphabet & Language
Phoenician is a Canaanite language closely related to Hebrew. Very little is known about the Canaanite language, except what can be gathered from the El-Amarna letters written by Canaanite kings to Pharaohs Amenhopis III (1402 - 1364 BCE...
Definition
Runes
Runes are letters in the runic alphabets of Germanic-speaking peoples, written and read most prominently from at least c. 160 CE onwards in Scandinavia in the Elder Futhark script (until c. 700 CE) and the Younger Futhark - which illuminated...
Definition
Arslan Tash Amulet
Dated to the 7th century BCE, the Arslan Tash amulet (AT1) was discovered in Arslan Tash, Syria and contains the writing of Phoenician, magic incantations. The limestone plaque includes a variety of features: incantations perceived to prevent...
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Eshmunazor II Sarcophagus
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazor II, king of Sidon. This sarcophagus is significant because it contains the longest known inscription in Phoenician writing. The king clearly shows an Egyptian style, with the fake beard and an Egyptian hairstyle...
Collection
Colonization in the Ancient Mediterranean
Colonization of the ancient Mediterranean had been taking place since the Bronze Age, especially with Minoan and Mycenaean expansion, but it was the Phoenicians from the 10th century CE that really took the whole idea to a new level. The...
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The Creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet, c. 900
A map illustrating the journeys of the brothers Cyril and Methodius, two 9th-century Christian missionaries, that shaped the cultural and linguistic landscape of Central and Eastern Europe. Commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III...
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Phoenician Alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet.
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Greek Alphabet
Modern version of the Greek alphabet.