The discovery and decryption of Ugaritic cuneiform tablets in the 1920s has given scholars an insight into the development of alphabetic writing and the origins of biblical poetry. This book, based on the author's Schweich Lectures given in 2007, describes the origins of the cuneiform alphabetic writing system developed in Ugarit some time before 1250 bc, and the use of alphabetic writing at Ugarit, and gives a comparison of Ugaritic and Hebrew literatures.
It is the purpose of this study to reopen the debate
concerning the authenticity of the Phoenician inscriptions
from Arslan Tash. It is here proposed that the
interpretations of data from the objects themselves
(physical, palaeographic, orthographic, grammatical, and
iconographie) as indicating an origin in modern times are
not compelling and that certain aspects of the problem
have been misperceived or over-emphasized. It is not
implausible to see these objects as authentic relics of their
time and place (7th cent., upper-Euphrates region of
eastern Syria). Proofs either different in nature or argued
in a more convincing fashion than has been done
heretofore must be adduced if the relegation to the status
of modern forgeries is to be accepted without question.
This article explores how knowledge was created, acquired, organized, and transmitted in writing by scholars and intellectuals in the kingdom of Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, best documented for the thirteenth century BC, with special attention to the social, cultural and political backgrounds against which such literary activities were pursued.
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