Who Really Invented the Alphabet -- Illiterate Miners or Educated Sophisticates?

Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | August 2010 | Anson F. Rainey & Orly Goldwasser

[SunkenCiv]

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.

[SunkenCiv]

an update.

[SunkenCiv]

How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs
Biblical Archaeology Review | Mar/Apr 2010 | Orly Goldwasser
Posted on 03/24/2010 6:51:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2479150/posts

Syria: Scholar Composes Music from Archaeological Ugaritic Cuneiform Tablet
Global Arab Network | Thursday, July 8, 2010 | H. Sabbagh
Posted on 07/09/2010 9:34:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2549691/posts

Deciphering of earliest Semitic text reveals talk of snakes and spells
Jerusalem Post | Jan. 23, 2007 | Etgar Lefkowitz
Posted on 01/23/2007 7:40:26 AM PST by Alouette
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1772219/posts

[SunkenCiv]

one of *those* topics.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Moose Burger]

You don’t invent writing just because; if you do it, it’s that you needed some kind of register ability for your daily chores. “...a desire to articulate their own thoughts in writing” is not enough. Motives. I want motives.

[muawiyah]

You can have an elite group ~ for example the royal court in Korea ~ create a syllabary that fits Korean language requirements perfectly, or you can have a single but very bright individual ~ for example Sequoia ~create a syllabary that fits Cherokee language requirements perfectly.

You can stick Canaanite miners in there somewhere ~ it's a very, very large opportunity.

[Raycpa]

If teenagers can invent an alphabet to text with, miners can certainly invent an alphabet to keep records.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! Cuneiform started as recordkeeping and accounting, its use in economic planning (micro and macro) became obvious; the surviving chronicles (the Babylonian Chronicle and the Synchronistic Chronicle) were compiled from earlier sources now lost; and the Epic of Gilgamesh and precious little else literary also is extremely old.

[CurlyDave]

The teenagers have the great advantage of knowing that alphabets exist. Inventing the very first one is much, much more difficult.

[Moose Burger]

The trick is that miner records don’t need a full, complex alphabet; they could have done pretty well with lines and circles and other simple markings.

[Mercat]

The Wycliff Foundation has a ministry of going into places with languages which have never been written down. They learn the indigenous language and develop the language and translate the Gospel of John for those people. In the meantime, they teach them some basic agriculture. Mr. Mercat and I visited some of these wonderful people in Pulenke Peru in the 70s. Good transplanted Kansas farmers.

[Joe 6-pack]

"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..."

Um...I would think everybody was illiterate until somebody invented an alphabet...

[angryoldfatman]

LOL! Great point!

[Moose Burger]

I guess pictogram decoders were the literate people of that time.

[Joe 6-pack]

Indeed...just keep in mind that the first alphabet was invented by some illiterate guy ;-)

[Grizzled Bear]

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.

Gee...this sounds a lot like the evolutionist argument.

[muawiyah]

Found some interesting history regarding the early days of Sumerian translation ~ the big names in the field were all Hungarians. Then came the war, Communism, and all that, and they just couldn't work in that field anymore.

Now they're back.

The Hungarians had a theory that the early Sumerian materials were easier for them to work with and translate because the Hungarian language itself, in the belly of it's multi-language creole, had the makings of a cognate language.

Long after the Hungarian efforts it was found that right up to the early 1800s a Sa'ami language was spoken up in the Carpathian mountains. That "factoid" has just recently started showing up on the internet.

Sa'ami language researchers have proposed that the Sa'ami languages are, in fact, the cognate languages to early Sumerian. Going beyond that they believe Sumerian is, itself, a Dravidian language ~ much like those in Eastern and Southern India today (or all of India some 4,000 years ago).

It is entirely possible that pre 300 AD Hungarian may be a clearer link between Sa'ami and Sumerian.

If the researchers can prove their links, they can then begin incorportaing the Kola Peninsula petroglyphs into the theory of how writing was invented.

[muawiyah]

Not really ~ it's the Anthropogenic Global Warming theory ~ that's the one where you build a model that gives you the answer you want whether you put in data or just fake it.

Remember, once DNA was discovered and we began to be able to analyze it, the old "missing link" stuff was no longer relevant. I do believe the Creos are the only ones still looking for missing links.

[Joe 6-pack]

I think SunkenCiv summarized it quite well in #8...I don't think any single person, or even coterie sat down and "invented" an alphabet...what we know of cuneiform is that it started out as a means of record keeping, and as it's utility to share information became apparent, words and sounds became codified over time.

I kind of like the way it was described in the movie "13th Warrior" (based on Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead"). The Viking Chief asks the moslem poet to show him how he "draws sounds".

[freedumb2003]

If teenagers can invent an alphabet to text with, miners can certainly invent an alphabet to keep records.

But over time they get soggy...