The Pitfalls of Typology: On the Early History of the Alphabet
The orthography of the Aramaic text of the recently discovered Aramaic-Assyrian bilingual inscription from Tel Fakhariyah in Northeast Syria has implications of fundamental importance for the applicability of the typological method to ancient Northwest Semitic epigraphy, for the antiquity and origin...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
HUC
1987
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 1986, Volume: 57, Pages: 1-14 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The orthography of the Aramaic text of the recently discovered Aramaic-Assyrian bilingual inscription from Tel Fakhariyah in Northeast Syria has implications of fundamental importance for the applicability of the typological method to ancient Northwest Semitic epigraphy, for the antiquity and origin of the Greek alphabet in particular, and hence also for the history of the alphabet in general. In many respects its script must be dated typologically to the eleventh century B.C.E., but historical and other considerations indicate that the inscription is from the mid-ninth century. This apparent contradiction is not to be resolved, as the paleographers suggest, by rigid adherence to a previously developed typological framework, be it through insistence upon the ealier dating or through ad hoc appeals to "archaizing" of any kind. Rather we must now recognize the existence of several independent orthographic traditions descending from the Proto-Canaanite complex. Unfortunately, perhaps, this means that newly discovered inscriptions from new places or new periods can no longer be dated with the accuracy previously claimed for the typological approach. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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