Phoenician Alphabet: Did you mean...?

The finely carved inscription on this obelisk dates to the 4th century BCE. The obelisk was set up in a cemetery at the Phoenician colony of Kition in Cyprus by a certain Arish in memory of his parent; his father Parz, who is said to have...

The language of the Etruscans, like the people themselves, has remained somewhat mysterious and has yet to be fully understood. The alphabet used a western Greek script, but the language has presented difficulties to scholars because it is...

Modern version of the Greek alphabet.

Mesrop Mashtots (360/370 - c. 440 CE) invented the Armenian alphabet in 405 CE. Besides greatly increasing levels of literacy in the country, the language permitted ordinary people to read the Bible for the first time, thus helping to further...

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...

This is a classroom experiment. As Babylon grew, the language spoken on its streets changed. This remarkable tablet captures interaction between the age-old cuneiform writing for Babylonian Akkadian and the alphabetic Aramaic that ultimately...

Mesrop Mashtots (c. 362-440 CE) is credited with the creation of the Armenian alphabet around 405 CE. Originally, the Armenian alphabet had 36 letters, but it presently has 39. It is read from left to right, and it is one of the older alphabetic...

Carthage was founded by the Phoenician city of Tyre in the 9th century BCE, and along with many other cultural practices, the city adopted aspects of the religion of its founding fathers. Polytheistic in nature, such important Phoenician...

Gold sheet plaques from Pygri, the port of Etruscan Cerveteri. In both the Etruscan and Phoenician alphabet they describe the separation of a space dedicated in the temple there for Astarte. c. 500 BCE (Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome)

The Phoenician expansion between the 11th and 6th centuries BCE grew out of the maritime cities of the Levant—most notably Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, whose skilled sailors and merchants created one of the ancient Mediterranean’s most dynamic...