[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Zeppelin]

looks like an interesting read

bump for later

[GSlob]

If one is to believe that primal urges would be the first ones to get expressed, then the oldest inscriptions would be [by content] not alphabets but what we would now see as graffiti, of more or less unprintable nature.

[BibChr]

pingtika

[mosquitobite]

Cool!

[TheCrusader]

Since I never subscribed to the theory of evolution, I believe man's immediately-created intelligence allowed a written language to begin very rapidly. And probably the first letter ever written was by a woman reminding her hunter/gatherer man that he'll be sleeping on the rock bed unless he comes home with plush red fox fur instead of dull gray wolf. :o)

[NYer]

PHOENICIAN ALPHABET

Comparison between the Proto-Canaanite, Phoenician, and Greek alphabets.

Proto-Hebrew/Early Aramaic alphabet

What this all means? I don't have a clue, but I'm guessing we'll see a lot of arguments breaking out over it. Regardless, it's quite interesting :-)

Catholic Ping
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[Just mythoughts]

pm

[Colorado Doug]

Great find. Thanks for posting it.

[Verginius Rufus]

This site seems to be a couple of miles east or NE of Kiryat Gat, which appears to be at or near the site of the Philistine city of Gath, the home town of Goliath. I doubt you can tell from someone writing the alphabet in order what his religion was, whether he was an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, or a Philistine.

In Acts 8.26 there is a reference to the road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. That apparently ran a few miles south of Tel Zayit.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[SunkenCiv]

Epigraphy and Language
A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem
	Posted by saquin On News/Activism 11/08/2005 8:48:19 PM PST · 29 replies · 514+ views New York Times | 11/9/05 | John Noble Wilford In the 10th century B.C., in the hill country south of Jerusalem, a scribe carved his A B C's on a limestone boulder - actually, his aleph-beth-gimel's, for the string of letters appears to be an early rendering of the emergent Hebrew alphabet. Archaeologists digging in July at the site, Tel Zayit, found the inscribed stone in the wall of an ancient building. After an analysis of the layers of ruins, the discoverers concluded that this was the earliest known specimen of the Hebrew alphabet and an important benchmark in the history of writing, they said this week. If they...
Israelite Alphabet May Have Been Found
	Posted by anymouse On News/Activism 11/09/2005 5:11:58 PM PST · 29 replies · 658+ views Associated Press | 11/09/04 Two lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C. "This is very rare. This stone will be written about for many years to come," archaeologist Ron E. Tappy, a professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who made the discovery, said Wednesday. "This makes it very historically probable there were people in the 10th century (B.C.) who could write." Christopher Rollston, a professor of Semitic studies at Emmanuel School of Religion in...