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Is the Greek Alphabet Older Than Once Thought?
Archaeology Magazine ^ | May 8, 2025 | editors / unattributed

Posted on 05/17/2025 9:48:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

The Greek alphabet might be centuries older than once thought, according to a statement released by the University of Leiden. Scholars theorize that the script emerged around the eighth century b.c., after the ancient Greeks adapted the older Phoenician alphabet -- which was composed of only consonants and no vowels -- to fit their own needs. This period in Greek history was the purported time of the poet Homer, who composed the Iliad and the Odyssey. However, University of Leiden classicist Willemijn Waal has recently suggested the Greek written language appears on pottery earlier than that, and likely dates back to the ninth or even tenth century b.c. Alphabetic scripts written on perishable material such as wood or papyrus may be even older, but have failed to survive in the archaeological record. If the Greek alphabet did exist at this early date, it means that there was no 400-year-long 'Dark Age' without alphabetic writing, as some archaeologists currently believe. "The idea that both the Greek alphabet and Homer date from the eighth century b.c. has been around for almost a hundred years and is widely accepted," Waal said. "I am now questioning this knowledge, and that will undoubtedly meet with some resistance. But new insights are also precisely what makes science fun; you never stop learning."

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: alphabet; catastrophism; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs
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To: Jonty30

When you are chiseling in stone cutting the number of letters in half would be a huge time saver.


21 posted on 05/18/2025 5:32:57 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Jonty30

That would be surprising as Caanites spoken a Semitic languge while Greek is Indo-European.


22 posted on 05/18/2025 5:58:10 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Cronos

Today we prounce HWH as Yahweh but we cannot be 100% sure those are the correct vowel sounds.


23 posted on 05/18/2025 5:59:59 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Cronos

From what I understand when the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet they ended up with unused letters so those became the symbols for vowels.


24 posted on 05/18/2025 6:01:34 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Cronos

Do not forget the “Egyptian Hieratic developed as a cursive form of hieroglyphic script in the Naqada III period of Ancient Egypt, roughly 3200-3000 BC.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieratic


25 posted on 05/18/2025 6:34:57 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom; Jonty30
Doesn’t make sense.

Of course it makes sense. It is a basic understanding that not doing something takes more time than doing that very same something. Not writing vowels is very different than not writing them.

26 posted on 05/18/2025 6:47:52 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Adder

A rub-a-dub-dub. Chon lives in Dub.


27 posted on 05/18/2025 6:49:59 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: C19fan
Today we pronounce HWH...

Actually, today's minds would be frantically searching memory for some ridiculous government entity.

28 posted on 05/18/2025 6:51:54 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: GingisK; ProtectOurFreedom; Jonty30

Read “takes more time” as “takes less time” for the “not doing something”. The brain went for a walk, I stayed home.


29 posted on 05/18/2025 6:54:37 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Jemian

Isn’t many young people in the US also doing the same on social media? Esp on Twitter when it only allowed to write 140 characters (later expanded to 280).


30 posted on 05/18/2025 7:00:45 AM PDT by paudio (MATH: 45<47)
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To: Jonty30

YS


31 posted on 05/18/2025 7:33:51 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Running Rampant, and not endorsing nonsense; My pronoun is EXIT. And I am generally full of /S)
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To: PIF

I didn’t know that. Thank you


32 posted on 05/18/2025 7:44:06 AM PDT by Cronos ( )
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To: C19fan; Jonty30

C19, genetics and language differ. The indo Europeans spread their languages but not always Gene’s.

The greeks have stories of some of their ancient cities having Phoenician founders.

And Europa, the princess kidnapped by Zeus in the guise of a bull, she was Phoenician.

But genetically I don’t think Greeks have much Semitic blood


33 posted on 05/18/2025 7:48:50 AM PDT by Cronos ( )
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Among the GGG topics in the coming week:

34 posted on 05/18/2025 8:40:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Politics do not make strange bedfellows, and the enemy of your enemy may still be your enemy.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Bookmark.


35 posted on 05/18/2025 9:14:30 AM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: Jonty30

Nope. The languages aren’t even in the same family. However, ancient Greeks wrote of Cadmus having intro’d the alphabet to Greece.


36 posted on 05/18/2025 9:37:33 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Politics do not make strange bedfellows, and the enemy of your enemy may still be your enemy.)
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To: Cronos

Thanks. Since my youth I’ve considered trying to learn a language, but the truth is, I barely speak English. ;^)


37 posted on 05/18/2025 9:39:20 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Politics do not make strange bedfellows, and the enemy of your enemy may still be your enemy.)
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To: Jonty30

Opposite. I believe the Philistines of Old Testament renown, were Greeks who over time mixed with local Cannanites.


38 posted on 05/20/2025 4:43:38 AM PDT by marron
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