Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts

Cross, Frank Moore

doi:10.2307/1356511

Cited by 32 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Depending on whether it is dated by the ceramic context of its deposition or by assessments of its palaeography (the two need not be incompatible), it belongs either to the early ninth century or around a century earlier (Amadasi Guzzo 1987, 13–16 with references). For some, this bowl has been seen as adding support to the argument (originally put forward on somewhat narrowly conceived palaeographic grounds) that alphabetic writing must have begun to develop in Greece significantly before the mid‐eighth century, despite the absence of any earlier Greek alphabetic inscriptions (Naveh 1973, 1987, 175–86; Cross 1980; cf. Isserlin 1991; Amadasi Guzzo 1991; see also Bernal 1987, 427–33; Morris 1992a, 106, 115, 159–60).…”

Section: Cyprus and Greece: The Nature Of The Literacy Gapsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus

Sherratt

2003

Oxford J Archaeology

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A number of seemingly intractable problems still surround the introduction of the Greek alphabet some time around the middle of the eighth century BC, after more than four centuries of Greek illiteracy. The question of when this happened, though debated, seems still more or less a matter of consensus on the basis of the date of the earliest extant Greek alphabetic inscriptions, but the questions of where, how and why it did remain largely unresolved. Of these problems, perhaps one of the most intractable is that of why it happened when it did, given that the old idea of an isolated 'Dark Age'Greece, cut off from the literate east during the centuries before 800 BC, is no longer sustainable. On Cyprus, too, there is something of a literacy 'gap' between the early tenth and late eighth centuries, though there is every reason to suppose that an indigenous syllabic script continued in use on the island over this period, and the problem therefore is one of visibility rather than existence. This paper considers the contexts in which alphabetic literacy was introduced to Greece and in which syllabic literacy became visible once more on Cyprus at around the same time, in order to see if these are entirely coincidental or whether some link may be found between them. In particular, it raises some general questions concerning the relationships between script and language and between language and identity in different parts of the ancient world in the later second and early first millennia, and the implications these may have for the role of script in constructing and defining identities in eighth century Greece and Cyprus (both incidentally inhabited by Greek-speakers). It concludes that what we see are analogous, but quite separate, developments, both of them focused on Phoenician activity, but manifesting themselves in different circumstances through parallel but different phenomena. SUSAN SHERRATT OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

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Section: Cyprus and Greece: The Nature Of The Literacy Gapsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus

Sherratt

2003

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…These dates will probably also affect the controversy over the transmission of the Phoenician alphabet to Greece. An 11th century transmission was advocated primarily by Naveh (1982) and Cross (1980), based chiefly on Greek and West-Semitic paleographic considerations, contra most Greek archaeologists that argue for the lack of epigraphic materials at this early stage. The paleographic reconstruction, as already mentioned, has been challenged.…”

Section: The Beginning Of Phoenician Expansion Overseas and The Transmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Iron Age Radiometric Dates from Tel Dor: Preliminary Implications for Phoenicia and Beyond

Gilboa

Sharon

2001

Radiocarbon

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ABSTRACT. The absolute date of the Iron Age I and IIa periods in Israel, and by inference in the Southern Levant at large, are to date among the hottest debated issues in Syro-Palestinian archaeology. As there are no pegs of absolute chronology throughout this range, conventional chronology had been established on proposed correlations of the material record with events and social phenomena as portrayed in historical and literary sources, chiefly the Hebrew Bible. With the growing impact of so-called "revisionist" notions in Biblical studies, which to various extents question the historicity of the Bible, it is imperative to try to establish a chronological framework for the Iron I-IIa range that is independent of historical and so forth considerations, inter alia in order to be able to offer an independent archaeological perspective of the biblical debate. The most obvious solution is to attempt a radiocarbon-based chronology. This paper explores the possible implications of a sequence of 22 radiometric dates obtained from a detailed Iron I-IIa stratigraphic/ceramic sequence at Tel Dor, on Israel's Mediterranean coast. To date, this is the largest such sequence from any single early Iron Age site in Israel. Having been part of the Phoenician commercial sphere in the early Iron Age, Dor offers a variegated sequence of ceramics that have a significant spatial distribution beyond Phoenicia, and thus transcend regional differences and enable correlation with the surrounding regions. By and large, the absolute dates of these ceramics by the Dor radiometric chronology are up to a century lower than those established by conventional Palestinian ceramic chronology. The ramifications of the lower Dor dates for some Phoenician, Israelite, and Cypriot early Iron Age archaeological issues are explored.

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“…We already store records of memories in digital and print form and have done so since the earliest writing (Cross 1980). Etchings of pottery shards in Ban Po village from ca.…”

Section: Augmented Consciousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who are We, and Who (or What) Do We Want to Become? An Evolutionary Perspective on Biotransformative Technologies

Lyons‐Weiler¹

2021

Biol Theory

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Human evolution sits at several important thresholds. In organic evolution, interplay between exogenous environmental and genetic factors rendered new phenotypes at rates limited by genetic variation. The interplay took place on adaptive fitness landscapes determined by correspondence of genetic and environmental relationships. Human evolution involved important emergences that altered the adaptive landscape: language, writing, organized societies, science, and the internet. These endogenous factors ushered in transformative periods leading to more rapidly evolving emergences. I explore the impact of development of emerging biotransformative technologies capable of being applied to effect self-genetic modification and artificial intelligence-augmented cognition on the evolutionary landscape of phenotypes important to cognitive plasticity. Interaction effects will yield unanticipated emergences resulting in hyperrealm adaptive landscapes with more rapid evolutionary processes that feed back upon more fundamental levels while vastly outpacing organic evolution. Emerging technologies exist that are likely to impact the evolution of cognitive plasticity in humans in ways and at rates that will lead to societal upheaval. I show that the theoretical contribution of organic evolution in future human evolution is expected to become comparatively insignificant relative to that made by endogenous environmental factors such as external cognition aids and manipulation of the human genome. The results support the conclusion of a strong recommendation of a moratorium on the adoption of any technology capable of completely altering the course of human evolution.

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Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts

Cited by 32 publications

References 3 publications

Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus

Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus

Early Iron Age Radiometric Dates from Tel Dor: Preliminary Implications for Phoenicia and Beyond

Who are We, and Who (or What) Do We Want to Become? An Evolutionary Perspective on Biotransformative Technologies

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