The advent of alphabetic writing in Phenicia was one of the turning points in the history of the Ancient East. According to the research of historians, it first appeared in the 13th century BC, apparently, it was this letter that became the basis on which the letter of the ancient Greeks and Romans was subsequently created. The Latin alphabet is used all over the world to this day, so the contribution of the Phoenicians to world culture can be called invaluable.

The Phoenician writing was consonant, which means that they used only consonants to write their words, while the reader could decide for himself which vowels to use. The text was written from right to left. It is difficult to say whether the Phoenician alphabet was the very first in the world, but it was the writing of Phenicia that became the basis on which most of the modern writing systems were formed. Historians cannot yet agree on the time of the origin of this language.

In 1922, archaeologists, conducting investigations in Byblos, discovered the sarcophagus of the ruler Ahiram, on the surface of which an inscription in the Phoenician language was carved. Pierre Monte, who discovered the sarcophagus, and other researchers believed that it was created in the 13th century BC, but at the end of the last century Gibson established that the inscription was created in the 11th century BC. At the same time, the sarcophagus also contained utensils dating back to the 7th century BC, so no one can say with certainty when exactly the Phoenician language was born.

The appearance of alphabetic writing in Phenicia did not mark the appearance of the first phonetic writing of writing, this merit was attributed to the Sumerians. At the same time, the symbols of the Phoenicians resemble Scandinavian runes in their forms, and are completely different from the cuneiform script adopted in Western Asia. Some scientists associate this phenomenon with the so-called migration of the so-called "peoples of the sea."

At the end of the 13th century BC. from across the sea, many different peoples arrived in Western Asia, who weakened the states existing there, and created their own. Thanks to this, Phenicia was able to exist independently for about four hundred years, although before that local cities had always been part of one or another state.

The earliest traces of the use of alphabetic linear writing systems were attributed to the 19th century BC, historians were able to discover both the Proto-Chaanian and Proto-Sinai alphabets. The authors of these alphabets tried to improve the ancient pictographic writing, they use simplified pictographic models, but each symbol received a phonetic content. To record the sound, a simplified pictogram was used, depicting an object, the name of which begins with a particular letter.

The writing of Phenicia became a kind of revolution in the ancient world, thanks to which the writing became available to most of the population. In the first version, there was a kind of hints for the readers that made it easier to understand. The simplicity of this writing allowed it to become widespread over the vast territories in which the peoples of the West Semitic group lived. In addition, such a letter could be written on various types of surfaces, while cuneiform writing in most cases was recorded only on clay tablets. The flexibility of the phonetic system created by the Phoenicians makes it possible to use it for writing texts in languages ​​belonging to other linguistic groups. The Greeks quickly adapted such a system to their needs, and then the Romans began to use a similar system.

Part 1. Trojan War

Phoenician writing became one of the first systems of syllabic phonetic writing recorded in history. From the Phoenicians, the Greeks received knowledge about the production of glass and adopted the alphabet... According to Herodotus, Cadmus is the legendary founder of Thebes in Boeotia, the son of the Phoenician king Agenor, a Phoenician by birth, who first introduced letters and letters in Greece.

Roman writer Justin, processing the "World History" of Pompey Trogus 1 c. before. r.kh. wrote: “For just as the Etruscan people, who live on the coast of the Tuscan Sea, came from Lydia, so venets , known as the inhabitants of the Adriatic Sea, were expelled from the captured Atenor Troy». (about Vyatichi see).

Other facts:

Lomonosov M.V. "Ancient Russian History ..."

First, we have a satisfied and almost obvious assurance about antiquity in the majesty and power of the Slavic tribe, which for more than one and a half thousand years are almost one measure; and for this it is impossible to imagine that in the first century after Christ it suddenly multiplied to such a great crowd, which is contrary to the natural existence of the human trend and examples of the return of great nations. This reasoning is consistent with many testimonies of the great ancient writers, of which the first will be proposed about the ancient habitation of the Vendian Slavs in Asia, tribal with the Europeans, descended from them.

Pliny writes that "beyond the river Willia, the country of Paphlagon, named by some Pilimans; behind it is surrounded by Galatia. The city of Milesia Mastia, then Kromna. In this place, Cornelius Nepos adds the Enets and Venets of the same name in Italy from them to be asserted from them."

Ptolemy agreed to Nepot later, although before that there was a different opinion. Agreed Curtius, Solin. Cato understands the same, when the Venets, as Pliny testifies, from the Trojan breed produces... All this the great and dignified historian Livy shows and explains in detail. “Antenor,” he writes, “came through many wanderings to the inner end of the Adriatic Gulf with many enets, who were expelled from Paphlagonia in indignation and lost their king Piliman at Troy: they were looking for a leader for that place to the settlement. who lived by the sea and the Alpine mountains, The nets and Trojans took possession of these lands. Hence the name of the village -Troy; the people are all called Venets".

Egor Klassen. "The oldest history of the Slavs ..."

It is known from history that Trojans were called first Pelasgians, then Thracians, then Teukras, then Dardans and finally Trojans, and their remnants after the fall of Troy by the Pergamians and Kemeians; for Kem and Pergamum were built by Aeneas after the fall of Troy, and the Trojans settled in them, who escaped destruction in Ilion. These facts are borrowed from both Greek and Roman historians and from the Iliad itself. The Greeks call Troyans, Macedonians and Phrygians Thracians, and the Trojans themselves also call themselves, and at the same time the Phrygians and allied Macedonians subject to themselves. If we didn't even know that Thracians descended from the Pelasgians, then even then, to the question of who the Thracians were, we would answer according to historical facts as follows: among the Thracians, as well as among the Pelasgians, we find many purely Slavic tribal names, among which, according to Herodotus, there are Russ and Russins... Besides, The Thracians wore forelocks, like the Little Russians; their graves were made in bulk, as in general among all Slavs; during the burial of the dead, all Slavic rituals were observed and even mourners were hired. They went to battle mainly on foot; their armament was Slavic. This is confirmed by all ancient historians; hence, The Thracians were supposed to be Slavs. But now, with Apendini's findings that Thracians and Macedonians spoke Slavic, and the most detailed conclusions of G. Chertkov about the Pelasgo-Thracian tribe, we are convinced undoubtedly that The Thracians were Slavs, therefore,Trojans also. Regarding the Slavism of the latter, we note in addition that Priamov's two sons bore purely Slavic names, namely Troilus and Diy... The first name was preserved on a cannon in the Moscow Kremlin; the other is known from Slavic mythology.

The history of the conquest of Troy was written by Dith, a Greek, and Darius, and according to others, Dareth, a Phrygian. Both of them were personal witnesses of this battle and both claim that T the royans did not know Greek and during the landing on the Shores of their Jason. This clearly determines that Trojans are not a Greek tribe... According to the legend of the same chroniclers, the Trojans called the Greeks animal-like; this indicates that the enlightenment of the Trojans was higher than that of the Greeks. However, this last opinion is also confirmed by the fact that the Trojans already knew painting, mechanics, music, comedy and tragedy, when the Greeks knew only one plundering war, its brutality and cunning.The historians mentioned write that Three had separate streets for each skill, as, for example, armored, boiler, tagan, leather, matting, koshechnaya, ummarny (which means shoe in Little Russian), etc. We meet the same in the ancient big cities of Russians; let's take Moscow for a sample; in it we find streets or former separate settlements of industrialists with similar names: for example, you see bronnaya, kotelniki, taganka, tanners, Rogozhskaya, purses, boots, as well as dampers, bell ringers, etc.

Diana was the Troyan goddess of the hunt, which is confirmed by the Trojan priest Koolhaas, who advised the Greeks to sacrifice to her in order to obtain victory. The Scythians of the modern Trojans and their later descendants, the Slavs, had the goddess of the hunt under the same name... The Greeks called her Artemis; Aeneas transferred its Slavic name to Italy. But if the Greek wrote the Iliad, then why did he not call his goddess by her Greek name? Because during the fall of Troy, the Greeks did not have either Diana or Artemis.

The embalming of corpses was known and used, except for the Egyptians, only among the Scythians and Troyans. The historians of Phrygia and the Iliad narrate that Troyan had a custom of sobbing for the dead, and mourners with loose hair usually followed the coffin, accompanying the deceased with sobs and lamentations. This rite exists in Russia and to this day.

Russ during the siege of Troy were allies of the Troyans, for Antif (Antip, Antyphos) led Russia to the Trojans; he commanded 30 ships, with the peoples of Nisyros, Karpathos, Kasos, and Ros, i.e. Nizhans-Russ, Croats, Kazams (Kazars) and Rus.

Let us add to this that the Italic tombstone of Aeneas clearly says that the Trojans were Russ.

The Scandinavian legends that we analyzed in the 4th issue also confirm the connection Slavic-Russian north with Troyans; Besides, many Franks proved that they were emigrants from Troy (Franks = Thracians); among them the Frankish Duke Otto and his brother Bruno later Pope, Gregory V, claimed their origin from Troy. And as the Franks also built the city of Roussilion, the very name of the city testifies that it was built by Russia of Ilion.

Note here that we are not alone in recognizing Troyan as Slavic-Russ, back in the last century R. Ch. Levesque (born 1736) argued that the Latins owe the roots of their words to the Slavs and the ancestors of the Latins and Slavs too early, i.e. before the origin from them Troyan and Venetov, divided.

Part 3. Phoenician writing

From the book by Alexander Volkov "The Mysteries of Phenicia":

Few ancient peoples can boast of such a number of inventions that changed the fate of mankind, as the Phoenicians: ships and purple, transparent glass and the alphabet. Even if they themselves were not always their authors, it was they who introduced these findings and improvements into life, and also popularized them.

They spoke in a language that no longer exists. Phoenician is one of the Semitic languages, and its closest relatives are Hebrew (Hebrew) and Moabite, about which we know only from one surviving inscription... Usually these three languages, also called "Canaanite", are opposed to Aramaic. At the same time, together with the Aramaic language, they constitute the northwestern branch of the Semitic language family, which also includes the eastern (Akkadian) and southern, or Arab-Ethiopian, branch.

Almost all Canaanite languages ​​are dead. The only exception is Hebrew, the state language of Israel. We can judge about its related languages ​​only by the surviving texts.

The Phoenician language was spoken by the inhabitants of the coastal regions of Lebanon, Palestine and southern Syria, as well as part of the population of Cyprus. It is known to us only from the inscriptions, the oldest of which dates back to about 1000 BC. The Phoenician-language literature, of which both Greek and Roman authors speak, has been completely lost.

The creation of the alphabet is the greatest cultural achievement of the Phoenicians. From their homeland, from a narrow coastal strip on the territory of modern Lebanon, the alphabet began a triumphant march around the world. Gradually, the Phoenician alphabet and related writing systems supplanted almost all other ancient forms of writing, except for Chinese and its derivatives. Cyrillic and Latin, Arabic and Hebrew letters - they all go back to the Phoenician alphabet. Over time, the letter type became known in India, Indonesia, Central Asia and Mongolia. The Phoenicians created "a universal writing system, the perfection of which has been proven by the entire subsequent history of mankind, for since then he has not managed to come up with anything better," wrote G.M. Bauer.

To create their original system, the Phoenicians used, as most experts believe, modified Egyptian hieroglyphs as letters. The earliest inscriptions, reminiscent of the later Phoenician writing, were found in Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula, where the Egyptians and Semites were in fairly close contact.

However, as I.Sh. Shifman, “signs of the Sinai and proper Phoenician writing, which served to designate the same sounds, were very different from each other. This makes it impossible to consider the Sinai script the direct ancestor of the Phoenician graphics. despite all the seductiveness of this kind of assumptions widespread in the scientific literature. "

For a long time, different writing systems coexisted in Phenicia: Akkadian cuneiform, pseudo-hieroglyphics, and linear. Only by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the more accessible linear writing won. The Phoenician Linear script consisted of only 22 consonants ... Another inconvenience is due to the fact that the Phoenicians eventually abandoned the so-called word separators (in our language, their role is played by the space separating words). The earliest inscriptions had vertical lines or dots to mark where a word ended. Since the 8th century BC, these badges fell out of use. Now the words in the captions merge with each other.

The earliest Phoenician inscriptions known to us date back only to the 11th century BC. Carved on arrowheads, they indicated the names of the owners. They were found in the Bekaa Valley and near Palestinian Bethlehem. Five inscribed arrowheads are the most important written records of the 11th century BC. The longest example of early alphabetic writing is the inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos.

When the Phoenicians penetrated the Aegean basin, the Greeks became familiar with their alphabet and, realizing its advantages, adopted it. Apparently, this happened in the 9th century BC. Obviously, the Greeks who lived on the islands of the Aegean Sea next to the Phoenicians were the first to adopt the new writing system. They did not forget to whom they owed this font, and for a long time called it "Phoenician signs." Over time, the Greeks also changed the direction of writing. They began to write from left to right, in contrast to the direction taken by the Phoenicians and Jews from right to left. The form of their writing became standard at the latest by the 9th century BC. Colonists took this type of lettering with them to the west. Therefore, the classical Phoenician writing was almost the same in all areas of the Mediterranean. It was this form of writing that the Greeks adopted, and also Etruscans.

Phoenician alphabet:

It is hard not to notice the similarity of the Phoenician alphabet with the Cyrillic alphabet: Below is a comparative table of the alphabets.

1. Phoenician alphabet XXIII century BC
2. Phoenician alphabet with rotation / reflection of letters
3. Etruscan alphabet VIII century BC
4. Byzantine unial IX-X centuries A.D.
5. Cyrillic XI century A.D.

Match with the Phoenician alphabet (including rotation / reflection of letters):

1. Etruscan alphabet. 17 letters are similar in spelling, of which 17 letters are similar in pronunciation.
2. Byzantine alphabet. 18 letters are similar in spelling, of which 16 letters are similar in pronunciation.
3. Cyrillic. 22 letters are similar in spelling (i.e. all!), Of which 18 letters are similar in pronunciation.

It should be borne in mind that the phonetic meaning of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet is not reliably known, but reconstructed by linguists. There is a possibility of error with this reconstruction.

If we accept the official version of the creation of the Slavic alphabet by the forces of two Byzantine educators, then it is completely impossible to explain the disappearance in the Byzantine alphabet, and then the inexplicable, miraculous appearance again, but already in the Slavic alphabet of Phoenician letters B, F, NS, C, and practically unchanged and with the same phonetics. The most cursory analysis allows us to conclude that the Slavic alphabet is more closely related to the Phoenician alphabet than to the Byzantine unial.

Part 4. Slavic roots of the Phoenicians or Phoenician roots of the Slavs?

Tatishchev V.N. "Russian history":

Below from Diodorus Siculus and other ancients it will be quite obvious that the Slavs first lived in Syria and Phenicia , ch. 33, 34, where in the neighborhood Jewish, Egyptian or Chaldean writing could be freely available. Passing from there, lived at the Black Sea in Colchis and Paphlagonia, and from there during the Trojan War with the name Genets, Gauls and Meshins, according to the legend of Homer, moved to Europe and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Italy was seized, Venice was built, etc., as the ancients, many, especially Strykovsky, Belsky and others, say.

Until now, it has been argued that most of the commonly used alphabets are derived from Phoenician. But is it right? The Egyptian culture, neighboring with Phenicia, was characterized by ideographic-rebus writing, hieroglyphs. For the Semitic-Hamitic cultures, to which Phenicia itself belonged, cuneiform was characteristic. Alphabetic, alphanumeric-sound writing did not have "historical roots" here... Moreover, it contradicted the traditions of the peoples of the region. The theory of the origin of the Phoenician alphabet from the Sinai script seems artificial: the Sinai script was also hieroglyphs, and not the slightest similarity between the signs, in general, is not found.

However, as already mentioned, during the excavations of Thebes, where he reigned Cadmus the Phoenician presence is indeed established. And really discovered Phoenician writing. But this is cuneiform again! Typical for the early Phoenician cultures of Syria and Palestine! Here, samples of another letter were found - but again not the alphabet, but the same linear, syllabic, which was found in all other centers of the Achaean civilization!

Finally, in Europe we find the Ogamic script of the ancient Irish and Pictish, which has absolutely nothing in common with any of the known alphabets: the characters in it differ in the number of dashes and their location relative to the horizontal line-line. But it is also alpha-sound! So, for the whole European region, for all Indo-Aryan cultures, alpha-sound alphabets are characteristic... Practically among all the peoples of Europe, the most ancient written monuments are immediately associated with alphabets! We also note that the Aryan peoples of Central Asia and the steppe ancient Turkic peoples in contact with them, who had a written language, also used only alphabets. The question arises - are there any facts that would allow us to assume a different, non-Phoenician origin of the alphabetic writing? It turns out there is.

For example, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC. wrote: “Although in general these letters are called Phoenician, because they were brought to the Hellenes from the land of the Phoenicians, they could have been called pelasgic since they were used pelasgi". He also talked about Etruscans: "They invented writing, zealously studied the science of gods, mastered the skills of observing lightning." Maybe they invented, maybe they brought it from some of their ancestral homeland. In this regard, attention is drawn to the writing of the Elim who lived in Sicily, of which all ancient authors are unanimous called people from Troy, and Pausanias calls Phrygians.

But the earliest finds of writing in mainland Italy belong Etruscans, who also came from somewhere from Asia Minor, and according to a number of versions even appeared, like the Elim, immigrants from Troy... Isn't it logical to assume that both brought their alphabets from there? After all, Phrygians(by the way, according to many related versions pelasgam, to which Diodorus Siculus refers), writing also existed, and from the inscriptions found on rocks and tombstones, it is concluded that their alphabet was "based on Greek" - and although these inscriptions usually date back to the same VIII century. BC, but again not strictly, but only on the basis of subjective inferences.

By the way, while producing Greek writing according to the Hellenic mythological tradition "from Cadmus" scientists for some reason do not pay attention to another myth, also Greek, according to which the inventor of writing is called Palamed... He was also credited with the introduction of Greek measures of weight, length, time, and the development of a calendar. Apparently, this is due to the fact that Cadmus in legends - an older figure dating back to the 15th century. BC. And Palamed is a participant ... of the same Trojan War... Dating back to the XIII century. BC. But the oldest found samples of the "Phoenician" alphabet date back to this time!

And yourself Phoenicians were not pure Semites — they came from the mixing of the Semites-Canaanites with the Philistines (Pelasgians) and other Indo-Aryan "sea peoples", actively exploring the Mediterranean in the second half of the II millennium BC. It seems that it was from them that the Phoenicians received the art of shipbuilding and navigation, some religious rites. The likelihood of the continuity of writing is not excluded.

And in this regard, I would like to move forward a couple of millennia and touch on another mystery of writing. How and when did she come to the territory of Russia? Having touched the prevailing historical ideas, we will again encounter a very strong, well-established stereotype that the Slavs learned writing only with the conversion to Christianity, and before that, it seems, it did not exist. However, this version is refuted by strict facts - and by far from isolated facts. Take at least numerous finds of "Slavic runes"- on a ritual vessel from the Voiskovoye village on the Dnieper, on a clay shard from Ripnev, on the Mikorzhinsky stone, on the stones of the Valaam island, etc. Russian chronicles mention some ancient writing in the form of "features and cuts"- and various examples of these "features and cuts" are indeed found in some archaeological finds. The inscriptions that existed in the pagan temples of the Baltic Slavs are reported in their writings by Dietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, Saxon Grammaticus, Helmgold. And in the memoirs of the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan, the pagan Rus sign on the tombstone the name of the deceased and the name of “their king”. Some signs that clearly represent writing - for example, found in the Ryazan region, are so ancient that not only cannot be deciphered, but generally do not allow them to be attributed to the culture of some peoples known to us.

Note that Pope John VIII in one of his letters directly stated that the Slavic letters existed before St. Cyril - he only improved and streamlined them. By the way, the Life of St. Cyril says about the same - during his stay in Chersonesos, he saw two books made by “Russian writings”, studied them and developed his own Cyrillic alphabet on their basis.

West Semitic consonant alphabet, with the help of which the originals of most of the Old Farms were recorded. books. The question of its origin remains controversial in science. Some authors believe that it is genetically related to * Sinai, or ... ... Bibliological dictionary

Phoenician alphabet- the oldest alphabetic system that has existed since the 2nd millennium BC. and formed the basis of almost all known alphabets. It was widespread. in Phenicia, Syria and Palestine. F. a. denoted only 22 consonants, and they have already been established ... ... Ancient world. encyclopedic Dictionary

Countries: Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Cyprus, Malta ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Alphabet (meanings). The Wiktionary contains an article "alphabet" Alphabets ... Wikipedia

Alphabet- [Greek. ἀλφάβητος, from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet alpha and beta (New Greek vita)] a system of written signs that convey the sound appearance of the words of the language by means of symbols depicting individual sound elements. Invention… … Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary

It is the latest in the history of writing. This name denotes a series of written signs located in a known constant order and conveying approximately completely and accurately all the individual sound elements that make up a given language ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

It is the latest phenomenon in the history of writing (see Letter). This name denotes a series of written signs arranged in a certain constant order and conveying approximately completely and accurately all individual sound elements, of which ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Alphabet- - this name denotes a series of written signs arranged in a certain constant order and conveying approximately completely and accurately all the individual sound elements that make up a given language. The alphabet appears for the first time in ... ... Complete Orthodox Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary

Phoenician- (Phoenicians are ancient Semitic tribes) 1) Related to the Phoenicians; 2) created by them; ex. F. alphabet - one of the ancient alphabets, which became the basis of almost all modern alphabets; contains 22 consonants separated from ... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

ALPHABET- [from the name. Greek letters "alpha" and "beta" ("vita")], an alphabet, a set of special graphic signs - letters arranged in a certain order and serving for the written fixation of the sounding speech according to the principle of sound-letter correspondence. Alphabetical ... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

Books

• The origin of the alphabet, V.V. Struve. It is generally accepted that all Mediterranean alphabets (Latin, Greek) originated from Phoenician. Academician Struve, researching the Egyptian phonetic writing, finds a correspondence between it and ...

• The essence of writing, its relationship to language and thinking
  • Question about the essence of the letter
  • The first feature of the letter
    • First letter feature - page 2
  • The second feature of the letter
  • The third feature of writing
  • The relation of writing to other means of communication
• Terminology and classification issues
  • The concept of "writing system"
  • Pictographic writing
  • Ideographic writing
    • Ideographic writing - page 2
  • Syllabic writing
  • Sound writing
  • Intermediate writing systems
• Origin of the original letter and its characteristics
  • Theories of the origin of writing
  • Primitive art as a source of writing
  • Periodization of the appearance of pictographic images
    • Periodization of the appearance of pictographic images - page 2
    • Periodization of the appearance of pictographic images - page 3
  • "Subject" ways of transmitting messages
    • "Subject" ways of transmitting messages - page 2
• Regularities of the emergence and development of logographic writing
  • Formation of a rudimentary picture-synthetic writing
  • The theory of monogenesis of logographic writing
  • Egyptian logographic writing
    • Egyptian logographic writing - page 2
  • Aztec Logographic Writing
  • Sumerian Logographic Writing
    • Sumerian logographic writing - page 2
  • The initial stages of the development of Chinese writing
  • Development of logographic methods of speech transmission
    • Development of logographic methods of speech transmission - page 2
  • Phonetic logograms
  • Application of phonetic logograms in Chinese
  • State consolidation of the basic principles of Chinese writing
  • Benefits of Logographic Writing
  • Simplification of the graphic form of signs
    • Simplification of the graphic form of signs - page 2
• Regularities of the emergence and development of syllabic writing
  • Syllabic writing systems
  • Benefits of syllabic writing
  • Sumerian syllabary
  • Assyro-Babylonian syllabary
  • Writing systems of Elamites, Hittites and Urarts
  • Old Persian syllabary
  • Cretan syllabic
    • Cretan syllabic writing - page 2
  • Mayan syllabary
  • Indian writing systems
    • Indian writing systems - page 2
  • Ethiopian syllabary
  • Japanese syllabic writing system
    • Japanese syllabic writing system - page 2
  • Korean ligature sound system
• • The emergence of alphanumeric writing
  • The emergence of consonant sound signs
  • Ancient West Semitic writing systems
  • The appearance of alphanumeric writing among the West Semitic peoples
    • The appearance of alphanumeric writing among the West Semitic peoples - page 2
    • The appearance of alphanumeric writing among the West Semitic peoples - page 3
    • The appearance of alphanumeric writing among the West Semitic peoples - page 4
• • Regularities in the development of alphanumeric writing
  • The origin of eastern systems of alphanumeric writing
  • Jewish and Iranian branches of alphanumeric writing
  • Syrian branch of alphanumeric writing
  • Arabic branch of alphanumeric writing
  • Greek letter
    • Greek writing - page 2
  • Latin alphabet
  • Development of Latin and Greek writing
    • Development of Latin and Greek writing - page 2
• The emergence and development of Slavic-Russian writing
  • The emergence of Slavic writing
  • The question of the originality of the Cyril alphabet
  • Cyril and Methodius
  • The existence in the pre-Constantine period of writing among the Slavs
    • The existence in the pre-Constantine period of writing among the Slavs - page 2
  • Chronicle and literary sources of the IX-X centuries.
  • Archaeological monuments of writing
    • Archaeological monuments of writing - page 2
  • Initial alphabet
    • Initial ABC - page 2
  • The development of the Cyril letter in Russia
  • Soviet writing systems
• Special types of written signs
  • Numbers
    • Figures - page 2
    • Figures - page 3
    • Numbers - page 4
  • Special scientific signs
  • Punctuation marks (punctuation)
    • Punctuation marks (punctuation) - page 2
  • Lowercase and uppercase letters
  • Diacritics and ligatures
  • General patterns of writing development
    • General patterns of writing development - page 2
    • General patterns of writing development - page 3
  • Development of writing systems of individual peoples
    • Development of writing systems of individual peoples - page 2
  • Factor of different content of the original writing
  • Influence on the development of the writing of neighboring peoples
  • Class influences on the development of writing
  • Materials and writing tools as a factor
  • Influence on the schedule of the appointment of written monuments
  • Features of the fine arts of various peoples
  • Genealogical groups of writing systems
  • Some prospects for the development of writing

Features of Phoenician writing

The creation of the first purely sound writing system fell to the lot of the Phoenicians and other West Semitic peoples. Due to its simplicity and accessibility, the alphabetic-sound letter created by them first became widespread among the neighbors of the Phoenicians, and then served as the initial basis for all subsequent alpha-sound systems.

The most ancient monuments of Phoenician writing that have come down to us are now attributed by most specialists to the X-XI centuries. BC. Almost all the oldest inscriptions made in Phoenician script are found mainly not in Phenicia itself, but in the Phoenician colonies, in particular in Cyprus. Most of the inscriptions date from the 5th century. BC. to the II-III centuries. AD In the future, the Phoenician letter is supplanted by the Aramaic letter that arose on its basis.

The Phoenician letter consisted of 22 characters. Each of them denoted a separate sound of speech; no other signs - logographic, syllabic - were used in this letter. Thus, the Phoenician writing was (along with similar in type Ugaritic, Proto-Sinai, and Proto-Canaanic cuneiform) one of the very first purely sound writing systems in the history of mankind. The second feature of the Phoenician writing was that all its signs denote consonants or semi-vowels (for example, waw - semi-vowel w, jod-semi-vowel j) sounds; as for vowels, they were omitted when writing and were not indicated. Thus, Phoenician writing was a typical consonant sound system.

The third feature was that the Phoenician letters had a linear, simple, easy to remember and write form.

The fourth feature was the presence of the alphabet, i.e. a certain order of listing and arrangement of letters. It should be noted that the alphabets of the Phoenician writing have not reached us. Until the 30s-40s of the XIX century. the order of letters in the Phoenician alphabet was established based on the coincidence of the order of letters in the ancient Etruscan alphabets (the oldest - the alphabet of Marceline - about 700 BC) with the Hebrew acrostics of the Old Testament; both those and others retained 22 letters of the Phoenician script.

In the 1930s and 1940s, additional sources were discovered to support the supposed order of the letters in the Phoenician alphabet. Such sources are: a tablet with the Hebrew alphabet from the beginning of the 9th century, found in 1938 in Lagishche (Palestine). BC. and a tablet discovered in Ugarit in 1949 with the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet.

The fifth feature of the Phoenician writing was that each of its letters had a name; These names were built according to the acrophonic principle, i.e. the sound value of a letter always corresponded to the first sound in the name of the letter (for example, b-bet, d-dalet, g-gimel, w-waw, etc.). As well as the order of the letters in the alphabet, the actual names of the Phoenician letters have not come down to us.

The names of the Phoenician letters are judged on the basis of: the Hebrew names of these letters, which have come down in Greek transcription and in the later Talmudic tradition; the names of the corresponding Greek letters that have come down from the 6th-5th centuries. BC.; names of letters in the Syrian alphabets of the 7th-8th centuries. AD From the Phoenicians, the custom of assigning names to letters, also built according to the acrophonic principle, passed to the Arameans, Jews, Greeks, then to the Slavs, Arabs and other peoples.

The sixth feature was that the names of the Phoenician letters were associated not only with the sound meaning of the letters, but also with their graphic form; for example, a letter called waw, which means nail in Semitic, not only denoted the sound w, but also resembled a nail in shape. Some scholars deny the connection of the names of many Phoenician letters with their shape. So, according to V. Georgiev, the names of the Phoenician letters fully correspond to their form only in four cases (mem, ain, res, taw) and partly in four more cases (alef, waw, jod, sin). With regard to the rest of the letters, V. Georgiev either denies the connection of their names with the form, or considers the Semitic etymology of the names to be controversial.

The direction of Phoenician writing was horizontal, from right to left. Words, as a rule, were not separated from each other.

A late form of Phoenician writing was Punic writing, which was used in the 4th-2nd centuries. BC. in Carthage and the Carthaginian colonies. After the fall of Carthage, Punic writing was partially supplanted by Latin, and partly passed into New Punic writing, which was used before the beginning of our era. The consonant systems of the peoples of North Africa (Libyan, used since the 2nd century BC) and Spain (Iberian) originate from the New Punic writing; the latest offshoot of Libyan writing is the modern Tuareg writing of Central Sahara - "tifinak".

Today it is practically forgotten, because it left very little of its traces on the ground. But it radically changed the course of history, determined the development of culture and science for several centuries ahead. The appearance of alphabetic writing in Phenicia is considered the main achievement of a small but very powerful sea power in its time. But first things first.

Location on the map

As many know, alphabetical writing appeared in Phenicia. But not everyone knows where this country was. An ancient civilization occupied a small strip of land along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Its land was cut off from the rest of the territory by the Lebanese mountains, which almost came close to the water. If we compare the Phoenician state with other civilizations of the ancient world - Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece or Rome, then it seems like a real Lilliputian. But its inhabitants entered all the ports of the Mediterranean region. Her ships carried important goods, and the merchants themselves beat welcome guests in many royal palaces. The appearance of the letter in Phenicia was not accidental. After all, an efficient and simple system was needed for accounting.

Phoenicians - who are they?

Today it is known for sure that they invented the alphabetic writing in Phenicia. When it appeared is also a fairly well-studied question. But historians do not know who the inhabitants of the maritime state were. Their ancestors lived in these lands already in the third millennium BC. True, they did not have a state like this, there were separate cities in which life was in full swing. They called themselves by the name of the settlement (Tyrians, Sidonians), and they also said that their home was the land of Canaan. The Semitic language, close to modern Arabic, the Assyrians, Akkadians, Egyptians, was their native language.

According to many ancient authors, the Phoenicians came from the islands in the Persian Gulf. They probably left their ancestral home at the end of the fourth millennium BC. By the same time, archaeologists attribute the first traces of their civilization on the Mediterranean coast.

The name of the country

Alphabetic writing in Phenicia appeared in distant years, at the dawn of the development of human civilization. It was their alphabet, which contained only twenty-two letters, that became the prototype of the writing systems of the ancient world. Interestingly, there are several versions of the origin of the name of the state. The first - the most common, claims that Phenicia is translated from Greek as "Country of purple". After all, it was here that rare dyes for expensive fabrics were mined. But the name can also be translated as "Land of the Phoenix", a fabulous creature that can be reborn from the ashes. Phoenix appeared from the east, where the Phoenicians lived. The third version is the most probable. According to her, the name of the state comes from the Egyptian word meaning the builder of ships.

How the Phoenicians lived

Alphabetic writing in Phenicia appeared in the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries BC. Until that time, the people lived on a fertile and fertile land. Although it was scarce, it allowed the cultivation of dates, olives, grapes, cows and sheep. There was no need to artificially irrigate the soil, since the rains watered it generously. The sea provided fish and other underwater inhabitants. It is not surprising that already in the middle of the III millennium BC. NS. small villages grew into cities. The largest of them were Byblos, Arwad, Tire, Ugarit, Sidon, Lagish. Almost all of them were surrounded by massive walls, and in the central part there were temples and houses of rulers. Ordinary Phoenicians huddled in small mud or brick huts. Drainage ditches were installed along the streets.

Alphabetical writing in Phenicia (13-15 BC) appeared much later. But even then, the townspeople felt a lack of space. Because of this, they first poured artificial dams, expanding the islands, built very closely built up and Carthage - the most famous and largest colony, which managed to compete with Rome itself for a long time. The walls were skillfully painted with ornaments of geometric shapes and ribbons of different colors. The presence of a long corridor and a patio was characteristic. Of the household items, the Phoenicians had low tables and chairs, large chests, flat beds.

Overseas merchants

The emergence of alphabetic writing in Phenicia was caused by the lively trade of merchants with the whole world. But what did the inhabitants of the east coast of the Mediterranean have? The cities of the conquerors of the seas were very rich, archaeologists have found a lot of evidence of this. The source of the Phoenicians' treasures was trade: paths from the north and south converged precisely at this place. The fruit of the land was barely enough for food, but the wood was more than enough. And this material was in great demand in desert Egypt. Byblos supplied the market with cedar, oak and cypress, which were widely used in shipbuilding. The valuable wood was used to make sarcophagi for the Egyptian nobility and pharaohs.

They sold wine, olive oil, and, of course, purple fabrics. From a special type of mollusks, paint was obtained, which dyed woolen and in a noble purple hue. Only very rich people could afford these fabrics. The production was so massive that there was a lack of locally produced fabrics. Therefore, merchants brought cheap goods (unpainted) to Phenicia, and already here they domesticated and transformed it. Also in demand were the products of local artisans made of silver, bronze, and glass. And also there was an intermediary trade between the West and the East.

Ancient writing: versions of origin

So, alphabetical writing in Phenicia. We have already mentioned when it appeared. But scientists agree on the hypothesis that there was an even more ancient alphabet, which served as the basis for the Phoenicians. They call it Western Semitic or Proto-Sinai, but so far this system has not been deciphered.

The first inscriptions made by the Phoenician writing system date from the thirteenth century BC, shortly before the start of the Trojan War. According to the researchers, the inhabitants of Phenicia made thematic notes on various sciences, and they were engaged in philosophy, literature, history. Unfortunately, most of their works were lost, and only small excerpts and quotations in the records of ancient authors have survived to this day.

There are also suggestions that the alphabetical writing in Phenicia (approximate date of appearance) came from The Jews could have brought them to Canaan after returning from captivity from the land of the pharaohs. Perhaps they were the part of the population that was not captured, but remained in their homeland. Who knows?

System features

As mentioned above, the emergence of alphabetic writing in Phenicia was caused by the needs of society. Now let's talk about the system itself and its features. The Phoenicians used the consonant principle, that is, only consonant sounds were recorded on paper. The vowels were not written down, but were thought out by the reader, out of context. They wrote from left to right.

In its development, the writing of the ancient Phoenicians went through three stages of development:

• The first or Phoenician lasted from the moment the alphabet was born (second half of the second millennium BC) until the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great.
• The Punic period begins with the founding of Carthage (9th century BC) and ends with the destruction of the city by the Romans.
• Novopuniysk, which lasted until the 5th century AD.

Gradually, the alphabet moves from epigraphic to italic style. At the same time, the letters lengthened and narrowed, acquiring their final appearance.

Achievements of the Phoenicians

The appearance of alphabetic writing in Phenicia is not all the achievements of the local population. It is considered a proven fact that it was the sailors from this state who were the first to circumnavigate Africa. The voyage took over three years. First, the travelers went to the Red Sea, circled the Black Continent and entered Gibraltar. They also established trade between the west and east, laid the foundations of the maritime craft. And this is a lot for that time.